Castell'Azzara is a comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

(municipality) in the Province of Grosseto

Province of Grosseto

The Province of Grosseto is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Grosseto.-Geography:It has an area of 4,504 km², and a total population of 227.498...

 in the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 region Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

, located about 120 km southeast of Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 and about 50 km east of Grosseto

Grosseto

Grosseto is a city and comune in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies 14 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain, on the Ombrone river....

.

It occupies the slopes of the Monte Amiata

Monte Amiata

Mount Amiata is the largest of the lava domes in the Amiata lava dome complex located about 20 km NW of Lake Bolsena in the southern Tuscany region of Italy.-Geology:...

, and was once important for the extraction of cinnabar

Cinnabar

Cinnabar or cinnabarite , is the common ore of mercury.-Word origin:The name comes from κινναβαρι , a Greek word most likely applied by Theophrastus to several distinct substances...

. It was first under the Aldobrandeschi, and then part of the Sforza County of Santa Fiora

County of Santa Fiora

The County of Santa Fiora was a small historical state of southern Tuscany, in central Italy. Together with the county of Sovana, it was one of the two subdivisions into which the possessions of the Aldobrandeschi, then lords of much of southern Tuscany, were split in 1274.At the moments of its...

 until 1624.

Main sights

• Rocca Aldobrandesca (Castle). Of the original complex the palace and the watchtower remain.
• Church of San Nicola, with some Renaissance parts.
• Church of Madonna del Rosario, including a Renaissance chapel and frescoes in the apse.
• Villa Sforzesca, built by the Sforza in the late 16th century

Nearby, in the frazione of Selvena

Selvena

thumb|250px|Church of San Nicola da Tolentino.Selvena is a small hill-town, population 578, in southern Tuscany, Italy. It stands at an altitude of 658 metres above sea level some 5 kilometres west of Castell'Azzara; administratively it falls within the comune of Castell'Azzara.-History:The village...

, are the ruins of Rocca Silvana, a fortress of the Aldobrandeschi.

External links

• Official website
• Associazione Pro Loco Castell'Azzara