Fortezza delle Verrucole

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The Fortezza delle Verrucole

The Fortezza delle Verrucole (also Fortezza di Verrucole ) is a fortress in Italy that belongs to the municipality of San Romano in Garfagnana .

Location and name

The fortress is located in Verrucole , a district of the municipality of San Romano in Garfagnana in the province of Lucca . It is located about 1.5 km northwest of the main town of San Romano in Garfagnana in the upper valley of the Serchio river in the Garfagnana landscape at 655  m slm . The name Verrucole comes from the Latin word verruca , which means "hill" or "mountain".

history

The hill on which the fortress is located today appears in a document from Frederick I in 1185 as being in the possession of the Gherardinghi and is mentioned as Vericla Gerardenga ( Verrucola dei Gherardinghi ) in order to differ from the Fortezza della Verrucola in Fivizzano, which is almost of the same name to distinguish. The building was originally built in the 11th century as the family residence and initially consisted of two parts on two nearby elevations on the same hill. On the one hand from a kind of town hall ( Palazzo Pubblico ) for the suburb (today the district Verrucole) and on the other hand from a smaller fortress with the Torre Tondo (round tower) of the Gherardinghi family. The statutes ( Statuto delle comunità della curia di Verrucole ) of the community were drawn up in 1271.

At the end of the 13th century, the Gherardinghi family lost their dominant position in the Garfagnana and had to surrender the fortress to the city of Lucca . In 1296 she gave it to the Luccheser family dei Guidiccioni to manage. From 1328 to 1345 the fort was under the Condottiere Spinetta Malaspina from the family of Malaspina (* 1282 in Verrucola Bosi (part of Fivizzano ); † March 3, 1352 in Fosdinovo ).

The Torre Tonda

From 1429 large parts of the Garfagnana came under the control of the Estonians from Ferrara . Under Leonello d'Este they restored the remains of the angular tower (in the north-east, also called Rocca Quadra ) and the round tower (in the south-west, also called Rocca Tonda , here the round tower is called an octagonal shape) and added to the complex a citadel around. From 1522 to 1525, Ludovico Ariosto was the governor (commissario) responsible for the military installations of the Garfagnana and thus also for the fortress Verrucole.

From 1563 the fortress was expanded on behalf of Alfonso II. D'Este , Marc'Antonio Pasi was hired as the chief architect, later his brother Pasio Pasi led the work. At the end of the 17th century the fortress lost its military importance and was then also used as a prison. In 1683, the Torrione della Polvere south of the round tower was severely damaged by a lightning strike and subsequent explosion in the gunpowder house . The municipality of San Romano in Garfagnana bought the fortress in 1986 and began the restoration in 1992 under the direction of Gianclaudio Papasogli Tacca. The fortress has been open to the public since the work was completed in 2012.

literature

  • Giulio Ciampoltrini, Paolo Notini: Le Verrucole di San Romano in Garfagnana. Archeologio di una Rocca Estense nell'alta Valle del Serchio. Edizioni S. Marco, Lucca 2007.
  • Comune di San Romano in Garfagnana (ed.): Fortezza di Verrucole.
  • Andrea Santoro: Fortezze, Rocche e Castelli in Lucchesia e in Garfagnana. Maria Pacini Fazzi Editore, Lucca 2005, ISBN 88-7246-682-2 , pp. 27-34.

Web links

Commons : Fortress of Verrucole  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Fortezza di Verrucole.
  2. ↑ Touring Club Italiano : Toscana. Milan 2003, ISBN 88-365-2767-1
  3. ↑ a b c d Fortezze, Rocche e Castelli in Lucchesia e in Garfagnana.
  4. ↑ a b Le Verrucole di San Romano in Garfagnana.
  5. ↑ a b c d ArTeSalVa
  6. ↑ Franca Ragone: MALASPINA, Spinetta (Spinetta il Grande di Fosdinovo). In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani . Volume 67, Rome 2006
  7. ↑ a b Castelli Toscani

Coordinates: 43 ° 19 ′ 20 ″  N , 11 ° 19 ′ 23.9 ″  E