CASTLES OF LUNIGIANA

Brunella Fortress - Aulla
Strategically situated, the Brunella Fortress dominates the town of Aulla and the confluence of the Aulella and Magra rivers. It once controlled the access routes linking the inland valleys of the Lunigiana to Via Franchigena in a key point between the inland mountain passes and the coast. This fortress is the most efficiently designed military structure ever built in the Lunigiana. Its great defensibility was achieved through a splendidly close fusion between the fortified buildings and the underlying rock spur on which they stand.

Vestiges of the first nucleus, aspecially evident at the north-eastern gate, suggest the fortress originated in the late 13th or early 14th century. It was around these original structures that the castle was built during the so-called "transition" period of the late 15th century when defensive design needed to meet the demands of new military tactics and technologies. In fact, its design and several of its architectural details exemplify the advancing theories of the art off fortification: the aim was to trasform castles, fortresses and city walls in response to the greater damage which a 13th century assaulting artillery was capable of inflicting on defensive redoubts. Through the architect of the Brunella Fortress is not known with certainty, its many similarities to the Fortress of Civita Castellana, known to have been designed and built by Antonio da Sangallo il Vecchio (the Elder), make it quite likely that he was responsible for the Brunella Fortress as well.

Malgrate Castle - Villafranca Lunigiana
The earliest nucleus of the Malgrate Castle, probably erected in the mid 13th century, was quite different from the structure now standing; what we see today is the result of over five centuries of continuous additions and modifications to the original structure, the last of which were terminated in the late 18th century. The donjon, or keep, made up of a high cylindrical tower crowned by a corbel-supported overhanging guard walk, constitutes the main edifice of the simple but efficient defensive system typical of the Middle Ages, a certain wall surrounding a central ward for control or refuge.

This earliest structure of the Malgrate Castle, strategically situated on the hilltop controlling the narrowest part of the Bagnone valley below, had an essentially military structure and function. In 1351 Malgrate Castle became the seat of a new independent fief splintered from the by then fragmenting dynasty of the Marquises Ariberti of Cremona, who acquired control of the fief in 1641. The entire central ward was transformed into a palace which incorporated the medieval tower completely into the new residential building.