Castello Aghinolfi

In spite of its very small size, the municipality of Montignoso has experienced important passages from the historical point of view thanks to its geographical location, in fact it stands on a hill from which it dominates the entire valley below. Representative of this condition is the Aghinolfi Castle, a decidedly evocative place and dear to all the inhabitants of the municipality, which thanks to its strategic position has always been considered an important garrison for whoever ruled the area, in fact from its terraces one has a panoramic view of the entire Tyrrhenian coast, from the Gulf of La Spezia to Livorno, on particularly clear days then the view can sweep as far as the islands of the Tuscan archipelago to the south and the peaks of the Maritime Alps to the north.

From the castle, which in medieval times was the most important in the valley, the Via Francigena could also be controlled, and in case of danger it provided a safe haven for many local inhabitants. Tradition has it that the fortress where the castle was located was never conquered.

The name of the castle tells of its Lombard origin, and in fact all of Garfagnana, including Montignoso, was conquered by Theodolinda as early as the 6th century; the first news about it are dated 763, the year in which a parchment decrees the fact that the Lombard king Astolfo made a gift to one of his relatives of a plot of land in the area, precisely near the “castellum Aginulfi,” so in that year the castle already existed, but no trace remains of the shape of the original fortification because it was remodeled many times: the fortress in fact, given its strategic importance, accompanied all the political transitions of the place, being expanded and restructured over the centuries and new defensive needs. The oldest element is the keep, octagonal in shape, which probably also had a residential function and turns out to be one of the most interesting examples of Longobard military architecture. We know that when ownership of the castle passed from Aghinolfo’s descendants to the Republic of Lucca in 1376, a time from which the building was renovated.

More precise news about the shape and size of the fortress we have relative to 1494, when the castle was ceded to the French crown: we know that the entire walled area extended for about one hectare and was divided into three fortified enclosures, connected by drawbridges and curtain walls, which included about one hundred and thirty houses used as dwellings in times of war and as warehouses in times of peace, two tall watchtowers a vast cistern for collecting rainwater, a chapel, a mill, and of course, at the highest point, the castle with the octagonal keep in the center surrounded by a circular tower and a secret underground passageway that connected the tower to the outside of the curtain wall.

The decline of the fortress began from the 16th century, when malaria greatly depopulated the area, and reached its peak from 1799, following the Italian Campaign led by Napoleon, when the role of the fortress lost interest and it was abandoned by the lords of Lucca who owned it at that time, the inhabitants of the area thus began to use its materials for the construction of their own homes.

A new blow to the structure was dealt between 1808 and 1812, when Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi, Napoleon’s sister and princess of Lucca, ordered work to restore the plain of Montignoso to cope with the centuries-old plague of malarial fevers, and for the materials needed for the work she arranged for the necessary to be taken from the dwellings that were within the various walls surrounding the castle.

During World War II the strategic importance of Aghinolfi Castle was rediscovered: the Nazi troops took it over and made it a stronghold of the Tyrrhenian Gothic Line, the Allied bombing actually enacted the first and only expulsion of the fortress, however, destroying it in a major way.

Until 1997 the complex remained in a state of neglect, but since 2001 the castle has been recovered and finally restored by the Municipality of Montignoso. Inside, thanks to a glass floor, it is possible to see the different layers of the ancient pavements, and in the keep there is a multimedia installation that explains all the phases the castle has gone through thanks to computer-animated virtual reconstructions.

Since 2008 it has been possible to visit the Archaeological Park, which is located within the castle’s outer walls.