the castles of lunigiana - 1: fosdinovo

...one of the many things we love about living in the Lunigiana area, is its rich ancient history and the many castles that illustrate it. Regularly throughout the year, several of them hold wonderful medieval festivals, complete with archery, sword fighting and other heraldic pageantry.

This is the hilltop village of Fosdinovo which, at 550m above sea level, is exactly the same height as the village we live in. The walls of the castle are 12th century and still in great condition - at this point, you need to take into account that, unlike our British castles, the ones here have had to withstand a century of earthquakes as well as sieges!

Records show that, in 1124, the castle was owned by the Bishop-Counts of Luni and tenanted by the Erberia family. In 1317, as the Ghibelline supporting Malaspina marquises continued their rise to dominance, the old Episcopal power declined and Spinetta Malaspina took possession of the castle. Almost immediately, it was conquered by Castruccio Castracani, Lord of Lucca, who besieged the castle with 6,000 soldiers and 1,000 knights. By 1334, Castraccio's power had declined and the castle returned into the possession of the Malaspina. By this time, the family were masters of the whole of Lunigiana and moved from their previous seat of Verrucola di Fivizzano to Fosdinovo, which they enlarged and strengthened.

The castle is still owned today by the Torrigiani-Malaspina family.

I had originally intended to start my Lunigiana castle series with Verrucola di Fivizzano as it is the one nearest us, but I preferred this image. This will be an occasional series spread over the next few months...