Castagneto Carducci rises in the very heart of the Livorno maremma and the Etruscan coast, along a hilly area. The actual place name has been taken in 1907, in honour of the poet Gisuè carducci, who spent here his youth.
The first settlements in the area of Castagneto Carducci go back to the Etruscan Age and then to the Roman Age, even if the place name appeared for the first time in an official donation act in 754.The town developed around a castle built around 1000, today called Castello della Gherardesca (Castle of Gherardesca), that was quarreled for long between the inhabitants and the Gherardesca's Counts.
The Church of San Lorenzo was built in the first years of the XIII century and renovated in the XX century, when was also realised the bell-tpwer in neo-medieval style.
We also mention the Bolghieri castle, at the entrance of the homonymous hamlet, the remains of the Donoratico castle and the Fortress of Marina, built in the XVIII century by the Dukes of Lorena.