Lunigiana

The Lunigiana (pronounced

diocese of Luni

, which no longer exists.

Lunigiana, a mountainous region dissected by the

Apennine mountains

. Others maintain, though little or no evidence exists, that the region was populated by those who worshiped the moon. As if to unite history and myth, the symbol of contemporary Lunigiana is a crescent moon held in the claw of a bear.

The earliest recorded inhabitants of this region may have been the

Etruscans who may have inhabited towns along the coast and even the hamlets near in-land trade routes. Curiously, while evidence of both Roman and later Medieval settlements are ample, the wondrously appealing stele, late pre-historic and Bronze Age stone statues which have been found in large numbers in this part of Tuscany, remain the symbol of this ancient land. They are the first expression of the art and, perhaps, of the religious beliefs of the peoples that inhabited northern Tuscany from the Bronze Age to start of the Roman Empire

.

Castles

During the

Pianura Padana and, seeking an outlet on the Ligurian/Tuscan coast, they found in the Cisa Pass and the Cerreto Pass

, near the town of Fivizzano, the easiest ways to cross the Apennines.

During ancient times, when the settlement of

fiefdoms, as well as between the states of Pisa and Lucca and, later still, between Florence, Milan and Genoa

.

The most important castles in Lunigiana, including La Verrucola, the famous castle of Fivizzano formerly inhabited by the late artist Pietro Cascella, and the castle of the Piagnaro in Pontremoli, the Rocca of Villafranca, the Malaspina castle in the city of Massa and the fortified village of Filetto, had been built as a result of these monumental struggles for control of Lunigiana. Moreover, when the Malaspina (one of the leading Lunigianese dynasties during the Middle Ages) played an import part in both the local politics of Lunigiana and the politics of northern Italy, they built a great number of castles, which were used as residences and fortifications by which several branches of the dynasty defended the territory.

Some scholars contend that with the growth of flourishing branches of the Malaspina dynasty, the inheritance of Lunigianese feudal territories by the ever contesting large and small branches of the family eventually brought about a diminution of individual holdings causing, in the end, the parceling of fiefdoms into increasingly smaller estates, all of which needed to be protected through the building of castles and other stone fortifications. Thus, through the centuries, many large and small (now picturesque) castles were built in Lunigiana, but at the cost of weakening the overall power of the family at each generation.

As a region which controls the passage from

Kingdom of Italy

as part of Tuscany proper.

Bibliography

Caterina Rapetti, Accanto al camino. Diavoli stolti e contadini astuti nelle favole della Lunigiana, illustrations of
ISBN 88-7876-096-X
.

External links

Massa Carrara province portal
Terre di Lunigiana Lunigiana guide
[1] comune portal
[2] comune portal
[3] comune portal
[4] list of the communes of Massa Carrara