Spazio urbano, spazio militare: la duplice dimensione di Orbetello e dei Presìdi di Toscana in età moderna.

The Presidi of Tuscany was created by order of Spain in 1557, at the conclusion of the Italian Wars. For centuries, this territory has been one of the most important expressions of the logistic and military strategy of the Spanish imperial system in the Italian peninsula and in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The author briefly reviews the reasons and the ideas behind the creation of the Presidi and explores their juridical and administrative nature: the universally known “State of the Presidi”, in fact, has never had the characteristics of a State. It has rather been a group of autonomous urban spaces, of communities held by medieval statutes and united by the Spanish imperial will. A place, or rather a group of places, in which urban and military dimensions have lived side by side, interweaving and sometimes colliding with each other throughout the centuries. In this particular mixture, Orbetello, the largest town of the Presidi, has taken on an important role, becoming with time and habits a sort of a de-facto capital in a non-State. It became a reference point both for Spanish (1557-1707), Austrian (1707-1734) and Neapolitan (1734-1801) authorities and for the communities themselves. Within Orbetello and the Presidi of Tuscany, urban and military spaces have represented two sides of the same coin, intersecting each other in a delicate balance with variable geometries that, however, has always found its peculiar stability.