Santa Fiora

Description

In the Purgatorio, at Canto VI, Dante names Santafior in a passage spoken by Sordello da Goito to Virgil, where the castle on the Amiata is pointed out as an example of a dwelling now fallen into decay and deprived of its ancient lords. The county of Santa Fiora is also recalled indirectly in the notes to Canto XIII, where it is explained that the Sienese had purchased the port of Talamone precisely from the counts of Santa Fiora, spending enormous sums in the illusion of opening a maritime outlet for their commerce. Thus the lineage is tied to one of the great Sienese urban dreams that fell along with the malaria of the coastal marshes. The Tuscan borough preserves the memory of that family, whose end is evoked by Sordello's cry.