• Introduction
• The village
• The church

Introduction

Pari

The church seen from the "Palazzo"

Pari - detail

Pari - detail

The village of Pari has perfectly preserved its original medieval structure.

Set on top of one of the seven hills of the area, several of which are higher-including Poggio dei Lecconi at 600 metres - Pari, as with the other villages of Civitella Paganico, has been a nucleus for settlements as far back as the Palaeolithic age.

Evidence of settlement by the Etruscans, then by the Romans, can also be found in the museums of Grosseto, Siena and Florence.

As with Civitella, the Counts of Ardengheschi chose Pari as their residence. It then came within the orbit of Siena between 1179 and 1254.

At the end of the thirteenth century the territory passed into the hands of other noble Sienese families such as the Rinuccini, the Squarcialupi, the Forteguerri, the Buonsignori and finally to the Malavolti. This last family gave up their property and the jurisdiction of Pari because of the imposition of tolls.

The various incursions into the Ombrone valley, combined with outbreaks of malaria, resulted in a slow decline of the area, including that of the walled village of Pari, although not to the same extent as the other fortified villages. Within the Leopoldine reform of 1766, Pari returned to the "Provincia Inferiore" of Grosseto, and from that time on its destiny became linked to that Province.

Pari was also the spiritual home of the well-known writer Federigo Tozzi (1883-1920). His novels contain descriptions of Pari and the nearby hamlet of Ferraiola.

Today Pari remains the seat of considerable intellectual activity. Thanks to Pari's village association Sette Colli and the Pari Center for New Learning, founded by the well-known physicist and philosopher F. David Peat, each year sees a number of international conferences and other cultural events.