Arezzo is a city in central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany.
Church of Santa Maria della Pieve, Arezzo
Arezzo is about 80 km (50 miles) south-east of
Florence, at an elevation of 296 meters above sea level. In
2001 the population was about 91,600 people.
Arezzo was founded by the
Etruscans. It was a flourishing city in the days of the
Roman Empire, then known by the name of
Arretium. During the
Middle Ages, much of it's earlier architecture was dismantled to reuse the stones for fortifications. Arezzo was an indepedent city-state from the
11th century until
1384, when it was incoporated into the Tuscan State of
Florence.
Prominent people from Arezzo include the scholar
Petrarch, artist
Piero della Francesca, painter and biographer
Giorgio Vasari, botonist
Cesalpino[?], poet
Guittone d'Arezzo[?],
Pope Julius II, and
Guido d'Arezzo, who developed the system for writing the
musical scale.
Gianfrancesco, also known as Giovanni Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, a famous humanist of the Italian Renaissance, was born near Arezzo.