The history of Lunigiana in 2 minutes
A borderland between Tuscany, Emilia and Liguria. A thousand castles, a hundred villages, a history that began 5,000 years ago.
Before history: the Statue Stele (3,000–1,000 BC)
Before the Romans, before the Etruscans, before everything, there were already people in Lunigiana carving stone.
The Statue Stele are human figures in sandstone, up to 2 metres tall, carved between the 4th and 1st millennium BC. They depict men with daggers and axes, women with jewellery and breasts. They have been found throughout Lunigiana: about 80 examples are known today.
No one knows for certain what they represented. Perhaps deified ancestors. Perhaps guardians of the territory. Perhaps both. They are among the most important examples of European megalithism.
You can see them at the Museum of Statue Stele in Pontremoli, inside the Castello del Piagnaro.
The Romans and Luni (177 BC – 476 AD)
In 177 BC, the Romans founded the colony of Luni, at the mouth of the Magra river. Luni became a strategic port for Apuan marble: from here, ships loaded with white marble set sail for Rome and the entire empire.
The name "Lunigiana" derives precisely from Luni. The city prospered for centuries, then the port silted up, malaria advanced, and Luni was abandoned. Today, evocative ruins remain, near Sarzana.
The Middle Ages: the Via Francigena and the Malaspina (1000–1400)
In the year 1000, Lunigiana was crossed by the Via Francigena, the route leading from Canterbury to Rome. Pilgrims, merchants, armies, ideas: everything passed through here. Pontremoli, Filattiera, Aulla became obligatory stops.
It was during this period that the Malaspina family emerged. Descended from the Obertenghi, counts of Luni, the Malaspina built a network of castles controlling every valley, every pass, every road. Over 100 castles throughout Lunigiana.
In 1221, the family split into two branches:
- Malaspina dello Spino Secco (to the right of the Magra, centred on Mulazzo)
- Malaspina dello Spino Fiorito (to the left of the Magra, centred on Fosdinovo)
Dante Alighieri was a guest of the Malaspina during his exile. In Canto VIII of the Purgatorio, he celebrates the family: "che pregio di borsa e di spada / non si disgiunse da l'antico onore".
The modern age (1500–1800)
With the end of the Middle Ages, Lunigiana lost its strategic importance. The Malaspina retained control of many fiefs, but power fragmented. The area became a mosaic of small states, duchies and marquisates.
The economy remained agricultural: chestnuts, potatoes, livestock. Chestnut flour was the staple food. The woods provided wood, mushrooms and game. Isolation was the rule: each valley was a world unto itself.
The 19th century and the Unification of Italy (1800–1900)
With the arrival of Napoleon and then the Unification of Italy, Lunigiana definitively lost its feudal fragmentation. Castles were abandoned or turned into residences. The Pontremoli–La Spezia railway (1892) connected the area to the rest of Italy.
But isolation remained. Roads were few, and mountain villages were reachable only on foot or with mules. Emigration began: to America, France and the industrial cities.
The 20th century: war and the Resistance (1900–1945)
During the Second World War, Lunigiana was the scene of fierce fighting. The Gothic Line passed right through here: for months, Germans and Allies faced each other in the mountains.
The partisan Resistance was strong. The woods and villages of Lunigiana hid partisan brigades fighting against the Nazi-Fascist occupation. In the summer of 1944, Operation Wallenstein attempted to eliminate the partisan formations with roundups and massacres. In Camporaghena, on 4 July 1944, Don Lino Baldini and three civilians were killed.
Today
Today, Lunigiana is one of the least populated areas of Tuscany. The mountain villages have emptied. But that is precisely what has preserved it from mass tourism.
Here you can walk the Via Francigena, visit thousand-year-old castles, see Statue Stele from 5,000 years ago, eat testaroli and panigacci in a trattoria where time has stood still.
Lunigiana is not famous. And that is its greatest asset.