Torrita di Siena

Ghino di Tacco
The Robin Hood of Torrita

Ghino di Tacco (born 1265) is the most illustrious historical person in the region of Torrita. He was a descendant from the noble Monaceschi Pecorai family. In the thirteenth century in Tuscany there was great rivalry between the Guelfs, supporters of the German emperor, and the Ghibellines, who supported the pope. Ghino di Tacco's family were members of the Ghibellines.

Ghino's father, Tacco di Ugolino, resided in the well-known La Fratta estate. He besieged and set fire to the fortress Torrita, which was in those days an outpost of Siena. For this act, Senese authorities condemned him to death. Ghino swore to avenge his father and, according to tradition, he murdered the judge who had sentenced his father. In accordance to another version Ghino killed the same judge, Benincasa da Laterina from Arezzo, to avenge the execution of his brother. Dante Alighieri immortalised this act of vengeance in verse in his Divina Commedia.

The pope and the city of Siena declared Ghino di Tacco an outlaw and put a price on his head. He retreated to his fortress in Radicofani, on Monte Amiata. He there sustained himself by occasionally looting the region. He was known as a noble robber baron who stole primarily from the rich and gave part of his plunder to the poor.

Decamerone
In Radicofani, Ghino di Tacco captured the abbot of Cluny, who was on his way to the baths of Siena. The senior cleric was suffering from stomach ache and his physicians had advised to let himself be treated there. Ghino however, put his prisoner on a diet of wine and bread and the abbot soon recovered. Grateful, the abbot went and asked the pope to rehabilitate Ghino. Consequently, pope Bonifatius VIII received the robber baron and absolved him. Boccaccio decided to dedicate a novella in his Decameron to this episode in Ghino di Tacco's life.

Ghino had repented and secluded himself in his La Fratta domain where he lived out the last years of his life a peaceful man. His death however, proved to be as violent as the major part of his existence had been: according to tradition he was mortally wounded on the marketplace of Sinalunga when he intervened in a brawl.

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- This site was realised thanks to the co-operation between the town council and the inhabitants of Torrita di Siena and ten graduated students 2004 from the “Katholieke Hogeschool Mechelen”, Belgium, department communication science, campus De Ham. - © Torrita di Siena

Dante Alighieri on Ghino di Tacco

On the central square of Torrita a stone tablet is bricked into the tower of the town hall. A verse from Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia referring to Ghino di Tacco is engraved in it. It is a fragment from the second book (Purgatorio), chant 6, verse 13-14 and reads as follows:

Quiv'era l'Aretin che dalle braccia fiere di Ghino di Tacco ebbe la morte.
(Here was the man from Arezzo who found death by the cruel hands of Ghino di Tacco).

In the old centre of Torrita a street is named after Ghino di Tacco to commemorate him.