Massa Marittima is an ancient historical town north of Grosetto, inhabited since prehistoric times, from the Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age, then a series of Etruscan settlements recorded in the region from the ninth to the fifth century BC, but not listed in any official documents until one feudal lord sold it and a number of other castles to another lord in 986 AD.

In the 11th century it was sacked and burned to the ground by Greek pirates, but became wealthy and secure and built many beautiful buildings as a free municipality in the 13th and 14th with the discovery and mining of copper and silver in the nearby hills, highly prized in trade with the Middle East, and fundamental in the establishment of merchant banking and the early international monetary system.