Gateway of the castles
The Fortress of Verrucole between the Apennines and the Apuan Alps
Gherardinghi, Canossa, Estensi, Medici, Malaspina: for centuries, the great families of the Middle Ages and Renaissance controlled the territory of Appennino Tosco-Emiliano from strategic locations - castles, fortresses, towers, military buildings - on the various mountains. The fortification complex of Verrucole, near San Romano di Garfagnana, represents them all. Perched on a saddle of volcanic rocks, as inaccessible as its name suggests, it overlooks the upper Serchio valley, between the Apennines and the Apuan Alps, with an octagonal keep which has been restored to its original glory, steep stone stairs, and crenelated ramparts along the edge of the cliff. Once threatening and "equipped with all discomforts", as Ludovico Ariosto described it five centuries ago, today it houses information maps and a telescope, and still tells a story of castles and landscape.
