Vinca is a hamlet of the municipality of Fivizzano located in the valley of the Lucido stream and nestled between the northern peaks of the Apuan Alps, on the slopes of Pizzo d’Uccello and close to Mount Sagro.
Vinca has been known since before the year 500, and local tradition has it founded by a small community that took refuge in this valley to escape the coast infested by Saracen raids.
Vinca’s official birth, however, must be traced back to 1355, as pertaining to the marquisate of Fosdinovo, then under the rule of one of the branches of the Malaspina family.
The most significant episode in its history occurred during World War II, in fact the village found itself in the immediate rear of the Gothic Line and given the intensity of partisan activity in that area Nazi General Max Simon planned a series of raids in the villages at the foot of the Apuan Alps with the intention of breaking all ties between the partisans and the local populations and hit Vinca in particular very hard.
The Resistance guerrilla warfare episode that specifically affected the village of Vinca took place on August 18, 1944 when a German vehicle was ambushed by partisans and in the ensuing firefight a German officer lost his life. On the morning of August 24, 1944, and for the next four days, the men of SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 16, commanded by Major Walter Reder, who had already been responsible for the massacres at Nozzano, Sant’Anna di Stazzema and San Terenzo Monti, and who in the following weeks would carry out his hellish task with massacres at Marzabotto and Bergiola Foscalina, thanks to the support of the Fascists of the XL Black Brigade “Vittorio Ricciarelli” of Livorno and the local Mai Morti who knew the area, rounded up and systematically killed all the Vinchesi they managed to capture, also burning the town on several occasions. The massacre claimed 173 lives and sent more than 1,600 civilians to Germany.
Every year on August 24 a commemoration is held to remember those events, which in addition to the civil ceremony in the morning, hosts concerts and theater performances related to the theme of the Resistance.
Vinca has other special features as well; the town is famous for its excellent bread, which for centuries has been kneaded with wheat flour, bran, water, yeast and salt; it is then leavened for 12 hours and baked in a wood-fired oven. Also noteworthy are the very pure water, the lard, processed in a manner similar to the much better-known Colonnata lard in marble basins, and the marble itself. Also typical of vinca are chestnuts, used in a variety of ways. One can visit the metato, which is called a “canniccio” here, which is the building used for drying chestnuts. The canniccio is a lofted building in which a fire of chestnut wood is lit at ground level and must burn, without flame, for thirty to forty-five days. A trellis divides it in height and here the chestnuts are placed. The operation is long and laborious and traditionally saw the entire village take turns tending the fire. It was a remarkable social occasion, in which during the shifts, village stories and fables related to tradition were told, keeping alive a culture that is disappearing today.
Vinca’s canniccio is still used today and it is not difficult to meet some villagers who can tell you about its work and secrets.