The presence of Etruscan, Roman and Lombard place names indicates that the territory has been inhabited ever since antiquity. However, it was only in the 10th and 11th centuries that written testimonies on the current settlements were available. The fi rst mention of the “Castelvecchio di Cascia” appeared in a document of 1066. Instead, the “Castelnuovo di Cascia”, which rose in the vicinity of the Romanesque Parish Church of San Pietro, developed during the 12th century along the main transit artery in the zone: the Cassia Vetus. An ancient Roman road, the Cassia linked Florence with Arezzo with a course that, at Reggello, should correspond to the presentday Via dei Setteponti.
Cascia was under the influence of the Florentine Republic, which from 1309 on had organised its own territory into “leagues” ruled by a podestà. The ruins of the podestà’s palace are recognisable in what today is known as Borgo a Cascia. The League of Cascia governed a territory of similar extension to that of the present-day municipality, to which the populace of the League of Incisa was added in 1424.
The existence of the built-up area of Reggello has been documented since 1250. The present municipal capital probably originated as a
marketplace at the crossroads between a byway of the Via Cassia and the Casentino road that, across the mountain, connected up the
Valdarno with the valley of the Casentino. In the late Middle Ages, the settlement of Reggello grew in importance to the point that, at the beginning of the 15th century, both the seat of the podestà and the market were moved there. However, the League and the podestà
continued to keep the name of Cascia until 1773, when a legislative provision of Grand Duke Leopoldo established the Community of Reggello. During the French domination (1807-1810), the territory was governed by a Maire. The Community of Reggello was reestablished in 1814, and attained its presentday territorial layout in 1840.
In the decades following annexation to the Kingdom of Italy, several industries were added to the traditional agricultural and handcraft activities of the territory. The main square of the town centre, where the weekly market also took place, abounded in shops and inns. In the meanwhile, Vallombrosa prepared to become one of the most important tourist-health centres in all of Europe. The Sant’Ellero-Saltino railway was inaugurated in September 1892. In the early years of the 20th century, the private villas and hotels that rose there gave hospitality to important personages of Italian and European politics and culture, until the war put an end to the belle époque that had characterised those years. After suspension of the democratic institutions during the twenty years of fascism and the war, with the administrative elections of 13 October 1945 Reggello resumed its own administrative course which it has followed up until now.
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