Carrara’s historic center has come down to us almost intact, and is fully legible in the different phases of its constant building evolution. Going along with the pressing rhythms of the marble economy, the growth of the city followed essentially pragmatic criteria: the new urban fabric was added to the pre-existing one, increasing its extension, while urban restructuring interventions were limited to the destruction of the Renaissance walls, and the opening of the new Piazza delle Erbe, without those “embellishments,” carried out to the tune of demolitions and gutting, that characterize the history of many Italian cities.
The new spaces created with the creation of the Alberician belt, included in the city space places that were already urbanized (such as the Grazzano district) or endowed with their own function (such as the “Platea Porcorum” that became Alberica Square), leaving almost unchanged the ancient structure of the “borgo della pieve,” the oldest settlement, of late medieval origin, squeezed around the church of Sant’Andrea.
An evocative itinerary, in medieval Carrara can start from the lowest part of the Alberica square, at the entrance of Via Ghibellina: here stood one of the ancient gates of the city’s first city walls, most likely built by Marquis Guglielmo Malaspina between 1212 and 1230. Excavations carried out in the foundations of the Diana Palace (the large palace with a loggia overlooking the square) have uncovered remains (which cannot be visited) of this first wall, which marked the ancient boundary between the city and the countryside. The gate, demolished in 1630, was named Ghibellina (evoking the historic prevalence among the Carrara people of those loyal to the emperor) and included the venerated image of the Madonna del Popolo, later moved to the cathedral.
A few meters ahead is Via Nuova, whose name is linked to the opening of the second circle of walls, work on which began in 1560. The ascent of Via Ghibellina then leads to the Piazza del Duomo, locally known as “piazza drènt” (inside, as opposed to outside non-urban spaces), where one is greeted by a scenic view of the façade of the cathedral of Sant’Andrea, a majestic building whose construction dates, in its early stages, to the 12th century. The church still appears surrounded by buildings of medieval origin, which frame it, enhancing its charm and preciousness, in an ensemble that risked being altered with a series of demolitions envisaged in the 1938 building plan (never implemented).
In the square, at the side entrance to the church, on the façade of an old house with the ground floor entirely covered in marble, there is a bas-relief with the figuretta del Pudore, a naked boy in the act of covering himself with his hands, on whose meaning the popular imagination has indulged, identifying it as a place of punishment for women of ill repute or the sign of a midwife .
The regularity of this section of the square, and the correspondences with today’s Via Rossi, Via Nuova and Via Santa Maria, have led some to recognize in this urban segment part of the route of a castrum of Roman origin, a suggestive hypothesis but one that has not, to date, found any archaeological confirmation.
After passing the fountain of the Giant (1564) and the house where Michelangelo stayed in his stops in the city, we turn left following Via Finelli, among tall houses from which fragments of history emerge, and reach Porta del Bozzo, dating from the medieval circle but rebuilt, with the corresponding tower on the Carrione, by the mercenary captain Niccolò Piccinino (1386-1444) in 1431.
The road continues to the suburb of Vezzala, a very ancient court perhaps the site of customs since the time of the Roman Empire. Ascending along Via Finelli, and leaving Piazza del Duomo on the right, one enters Via Santa Maria, whose development dates between the 11th and 14th centuries. The building fabric is dense and rich in evidence such as columned windows, remains of bas-reliefs and ornamentation. At the intersection with Salita Repetti, turning your gaze to the left, you can see, embedded in the more recent 17th-century masonry, the ancient entrance to the Cybo Malaspina fortress, whose current appearance is the result of a 20th-century neo-medieval reconstruction.
Just before the end of Via Santa Maria, on the right, the Repetti House, the birthplace of Carrara geographer and naturalist Emanuele Repetti (1776-1852), stands out; with its two registers entirely covered in marble, and laden with inscriptions, symbols and ornaments, the building constitutes the best-preserved example of a medieval house in Carrara. On one doorframe a graffito is said to represent Dante, while according to tradition it was Francesco Petrarca who stayed among these rooms, in 1343. Internally, the building has been profoundly altered, and the exterior is rendered barely legible by blackening due to the centuries, for which due restoration is awaited.
At the conclusion of the itinerary, we invite you to walk the other streets of the center, from Via Rossi to Via dell’Arancio, perhaps taking you as far as the Cafaggio district, beyond the course of the Carrione stream, and let yourself be fascinated by the continuous surfacing of signs of Carrara’s millennial history from lintels, windows and architectural fragments.