Little remains today of the “rocca gagliardissima di muraglie” that constituted the “castle of Lavenza,” described in 1602 by Alberico I Cybo Malaspina, first prince of Massa and marquis of Carrara. The once superb mole derives its name from the Lucchese leader Castruccio Castracani degli Antelminelli (1281-1328), who ruled the territories between Sarzana and Massa for a brief period (1322-1328), devoting himself to extensive fortification works.
The village of Avenza (or Lavenza, from the stream of the same name) was then close to the sea, and was of strategic importance militarily and politically.Castruccio, who had probably destroyed earlier defensive installations during his conquest of the territory, decided on the erection of a larger structure, calling the syniscalco Vanni Teti da San Miniato for this purpose.
The new castle, first mentioned on the occasion of a passage of Florentine troops (1418), was still intact in the mid-nineteenth century, when it was described in John Murray’s popular guidebook (Handbook for Travellers in Northern Italy part.II, London, 1854), as “A grand building, little injured,” of which the large round towers, provided with an external gallery “of the boldest character,” were noted. The same guidebook, in the 1880 edition, did not fail to remark, in harsh tones, how the fortification had meanwhile been “barbarously mutilated,” and turned into a factory that same year.
Indeed, after the unification of Italy, the grandiose structure was sold by the government to private entrepreneurs, who proceeded to demolish a large part of it in 1867, using the structures as a quarry for materials. The indignation of some illustrious Carraresi (such as Count Carlo Lazzoni, who lamented the barbarity of this little respect “for the honor of history, art and civilization”), and of foreign visitors (such as the German historian Theodor Mommsen, who passed through Avenza in 1883), was not enough to stop the deterioration of the “Tower,” the only one surviving of the original three. To these conspicuous damages were then added those of the war, when the area was hard hit by Allied bombing in 1944.
The monument stands today as a mighty ruin, which still dominates the oldest settlement of Avenza: the tower, with a cylindrical section, bears the signs of the numerous reconstructions, put in place between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to adapt its structures to firearms. In recent years various hypotheses have been put forward about its recovery, while graffiti left by prisoners between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the remains of some passages that connected the fortress to the ancient village, have emerged.
The gardens below, suitably arranged, host cultural events, festivals and opera concerts in the summer months.