Castello di Andora is located on top of a secluded hill in the small town of Andora. Historically the town was known as Paraxo and is located in the province of Savona in the Liguria region. Today only the ruins of the walls and defensive towers of the original castle can be seen.
In the 12th century the importance of Andora grew when it became the base of power for the Marquis of Clavesana. The castle was sold to the Republic of Genoa in the year 1215 by the Marquis. The Genoese then expanded and transformed the castle, which became the home of the Genoese mayor.
The gate tower of the castle tower stands parallel to the church and dates back to the 13th century and was built by the Clavesana. The tower was later renovated in the 19th century. In the same area are several other gems like the Paraxu, which was the mansion of the governor, and Saint Nicholas, a church rebuilt in Baroque era. The church still has a few traces of its 12th century decorations.

Today the castle of Andora is home to a piano bar and a restaurant. The castle is in quite good condition and stands overlooking Via Aurelia. 

When swamps grew at the mouth of the Merula River, the inhabitants of the town fled the area and took refuge in the nearby villages and towns, especially in the Laigueglia area. In the 15th and 16th century the Andora area underwent depopulation, however the mayor kept full administration powers of the castle until the French Revolution.

The Castle

Castello di Andora includes the castle and the Saints Philips and James church. These monuments are considered to be one of the most well preserved and historically important monuments in the region of Liguria.


History of the Castle

The Castle of Andora is located on top of a hill in the valley of the River Merula. Along with Saints James and Philip Romanesque church the castle is considered to be one of the most important monuments in Western Liguria. If you are driving into Andora you will be able to see the ruins from the highway as they are located about two kilometers from the city center.

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Castello di Andora

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The magnificent Lerici Castle rises on a rocky promontory overlooking the Bay of Lerici and is considered one of the most impressive and beautiful fortification in
all of Liguria.

Due to its location in the Gulf of La Spezia, it has a rich history of disputes between the naval powers in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages, evidence of which can be found in the inscriptions still legible at the Castle's entrance.
Lerici Castle has an irregular polygonal plan and is surrounded externally by
a truly massive curtain walls dominated by the impressive size of the east corner tower.
The Castle’s initial structure was built in 1241 while Lerici was occupied by the Pisans and later extended and reinforced as its role developed during the rule of the Genoese. The evolution of the complex structure of the castle can be summarised in three key stages of construction :

 

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The first phase is referred to as the Pisan domination. It was the Pisans that began construction in 1152 of the oldest structure of the castle - its pentagonal tower.

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 Lerici Castle

Il castello di Trebiano è stato un edificio difensivo e residenza vescovile-signorile in epoca feudale del borgo medievale di Trebiano, odierna frazione di Arcola, in val di Magra nella provincia della Spezia.
Il castello è costruito sul colle sovrastante il borgo medievale di Trebiano, a cavallo tra la bassa val di Magra e il mare, a controllo degli importanti scali marittimi commerciali di Lerici, utilizzato per lo più dalla Repubblica di Genova e la Francia, e di San Genesio verso La Spezia per gli scambi con la Toscana.

Secondo le fonti storiche il castello potrebbe risalire ad un periodo poco inferiore o coevo al X secolo, data la sua certa citazione nel 963 in un diploma dell'imperatore Ottone I di Sassonia. Inizialmente fu utilizzato dalla diocesi di Luni, proprietaria delle terre feudali tra Liguria e Lunigiana, come residenza vescovile e che tuttavia mantenne dopo il passaggio del borgo, nel 1039, ai primi Signori di Trebiano, questi ultimi vicini alla diocesi lunense.

Di forma quadrata, o meglio a pianta sub-pentagonale, presenta quattro grandi torri ai lati inglobate nella cortina che raggiunge l'altezza massima di 20 metri. Non presenta finestre, ma lunghe e strette feritoie.

Castello di Trebiano

The view from Castelnuovo Magra is earned after having travelled the 4 km upwards along the road that leads to its historical centre from Aurelia. The town lengthens along the ridge and even from a distance you can clearly see its important points: the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena and the Bishops’ Palace. By just walking along the streets it becomes clear that the village is antique. The presence of small winding alleys, portals and the view of the castle declare origins dating back to Medieval times. The mansions on Via Dante, the main road, have been retouched however, probably between the 17th and 18th centuries and Piazza Querciola, the square where the road merges, is of the same period.

We are in the highest part of the town, this area was once called Borghetto, therefore if we were in the position of having to choose a point in Castelnuovo to build a fortified outpost, I don’t think there would be any doubts about building it in this square, where once Bishop Gualtiero II positioned an initial defensive outpost, probably when the town was being built. The view from here includes an extremely vast area, you can see Sarzana, Sarzanello castle, the antique site of Luni, and obviously the Magra, from which the whole area takes its name. 

Castelnuovo arose in the period from 1187 to 1203, together with the conflict between the Luni bishops and Malaspina, who fought for power in Lunigiana. It was certainly not a simple period, with plundering and devastation; this was one of the reasons why bishop Gualtiero wanted a new castle to be built in the section of land between Fosdinovo and Carrara in order to control the viability and keep it safe. The castle, initially named “of Santa Maria”, represented the focal point around which the most ancient living area of Castelnuovo developed.

The 13th century was extremely complex for this region, the anxiety between the Bishop and the nearby villages became bitter: Sarzana proposed itself as the symbol of this restlessness, demanding release from the Bishop’s reins. Castelnuovo joined forces with Sarzana, but was then obliged to reach compromises because the Episcopate, which always seemed to be on the point of crumbling under the weight of the continuous fighting, continued recovering, often because of some skilled and politically active people who every now and then were able to give renewed energy. This was the case of Bishop Guglielmo who, in 1230, managed to invigorate his power and get Castelnuovo back on his side, which in compensation obtained reinforcement with surrounding walls.

In the meantime the Luni Episcopate fell into the hands of Enrico da Fucecchio, the last person who truly tried in every manner to restore the Luni comital power. This extremely interesting personality decided to build a second episcopal mansion in Castelnuovo, the palacium with the turrim magnam mentioned in documents, and also to purchase an impressive quantity of property. Following the stipulation of peace for Castelnuovo, nestled inside the walls of the new episcopal mansion, the conflict between bishops and Malaspinas formally ended, but factually it was also the end of the bishop’s supremacy in Lunigiana.

Walk through the village alleys, the shape of which state their Medieval origin. At the end of the main road you probably didn’t expect to see a square as big as this one, slightly higher, and in which the sheer size of the bishop’s castle grabs your attention. Listen to the audioguide 1 and discover when and why this building was constructed!

Castello di Castelnuovo Magra


This Castle of medieval origins is one of the best preserved in Lunigiana and it played an important role in a feud belonging to the Malaspina family from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. The construction of the massive fortress merges with the underlying sandstone rock so that the whole structure seems carved out of the earth.
 
Built for defense, in 1340 the castle was officially ceded by the Noble family of Fosdinovo to the warlord Spinetta Malaspina who created the Marquisate of Fosdinovo and lived in the castle for the rest of his life.

In the sixteenth century, Gabriele and then Lorenzo Malaspina added the Renaissance courtyard while in the seventeenth century, under Jacopo Malaspina, the castle was enlarged. The basic design of the Castle of Fosdinovo consists of a square with four round towers, a semicircular rampart, two internal courtyards, a central courtyard, patrol trenches above the roof, hanging gardens, galleries and an ancient defensive wall. Once protected by a drawbridge, the main gateway enters into a thirteenth century Romanesque style courtyard, which is framed by marble columns supporting overhead arcades. From this small courtyard, where guns were once kept at the ready to defend the castle, a broad flight of stairs rises leading to a large central courtyard.
The courtyard boasts an elegant Renaissance porch with stone columns, a well and a beautiful sixteenth-century marble portal leading to interior rooms of the castle, decorated and painted before 1800. Next is the entrance hall, the dining room with a large fireplace and seventeenth century ceramics, the throne room, the great hall and the room of ‘trabocchetto’ (the trap-door room) with a torture room lying below. It is said that the evil marchioness Cristina Pallavicini, used to kill her lovers by surprising them with a trap door located at the foot of the bed, dropping them into the dungeon or torture room. Trapdoors such as this were common in the castle. There were three of these traps, two in the veranda close to the garden and one in a corner-tower. Underneath them there were sharp knives with the blades pointing upwards, so sharp that when someone fell through a trapdoor they were dropped immediately to their death. In addition to these terrible instruments of torture and death, there was another even more terrible. It was a kind of iron arm that jutted from the wall of the tower with a pulley and a ring connected by a rope. The victim was tortured and then left to hang before the whole town until they were dead.

The oldest east tower, is known as the "Dante chamber” where, according to tradition, the great poet slept when he was a guest at the castle during his period of exile. The frescoes in the grand central hall depict the solid friendship between Dante and the Malaspina family.
 
The visit around the Castle continues upstairs among countless other furnished rooms and along the exterior walkway above the roof which offers a stunning panoramic view.

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Malaspina Castle

Majestic, panoramic, a witness of centuries of history: Doria Castle is one of the most striking features of Portovenere. It stands on a rocky plateau, featuring steep walls and mighty archways in local stone.

Castello Doria in Porto Venere, Liguria
The castle dominates the village of Portovenere
The Doria Castle of Portovenere is a proper example of Genoese military architecture, even though it has undergone some structural modifications due to the progress of fortifications and firearms. When you first glance at Castello Doria, it looks like one solid piece. But it actually consists of 2 distinct parts positioned at different levels and enclosed in large Cyclopean walls.

Doria Castle Portovenere mapAmong the characteristic spaces are the large hall at the lower entrance, named “Sala Ipostila” after ancient temples that had a flat roof supported by columns; the “Casa del Castellano”, where the lord of the castle and people’s captain lived in the 1500s; and the northern part with angled bastions, loopholes and other features for conventional defense.

The exact date of construction of the first fortified building is still unknown. Historic documents mention it for the first time in 1139, when the Republic of Genoa took control of the hamlet of Porto Venere. The current castle was built on the remains of the more ancient structure in 1161.

In the XIII century, the castle was at the center of the battles between Genoa and Pisa. It ended up under Nicolò Fieschi’s large fief, to eventually return under the control of the Republic of Genoa in 1276. Major reconstruction works took place between the XV and XVII centuries, to modernize the castle according to the military and architectonic criteria of the time. At the beginning of the XIX century, during the French rule under Napoleon Bonaparte, the Castello Doria was used as a prison.

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Castle of Portovenere

Palazzo Cybo Malaspina o Palazzo Ducale è uno dei più famosi palazzi della provincia di Massa Carrara.

L'edificazione del Palazzo Cybo-Malaspina, costruito su precedenti fortificazioni risalenti al periodo longobardo, risale all'epoca di Guglielmo Malaspina, e nel 1448 divenne la residenza stabile della dinastia.

Dopo la caduta dei Malaspina e durante le diverse occupazioni che Carrara subì, molte opere furono trafugate, e il torrione fu adibito agli usi più svariati. Il Palazzo è costituito da due nuclei distinti: il primo è il Castello malaspiniano, risalente al Duecento, e il secondo è il Palazzo rinascimentale, iniziato da Alberico I nel tardo Cinquecento.

Il Palazzo oggi ospita la sede centrale dell'Accademia di Belle Arti. All'interno di esso si trovano: nella sala delle colonne, la Biblioteca d'Istituto, che conserva due edizioni originali dell'"Encyclopédie"; nella sala dei nobili è presente la più completa marmoteca nazionale esistente; negli appartamenti privati del principe, gli archivi antiquari locali, la raccolta bibliografica lunigianese dei conti Del Medico, l'archivio Zaccagna e l'Emeroteca apuana; i resti delle antiche collezioni artistiche del Palazzo (una pinacoteca, una raccolta di sculture con opere dei maestri dell'Accademia come Tenerani e Dazzi, e una gipsoteca, con gessi di Canova, Tenerani, Dazzi, Finelli, Fontana e copie dei Gessi Vaticani conservati al Louvre).

Sotto il loggiato medievale si possono ammirare anche opere romane (su tutte la celebre edicola votiva dei Fantiscritti), medievali e rinascimentali.

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Palazzo Cybo Malaspina

The Malaspina Castle is located in Massa, Italy. It crowns the top of a rocky hill and dominates the wide underlying plain and part of the Tyrrhenian coast. From the 17th century the main purpose of the castle was military and it served as a prison until 1946. The castle was subsequently restored and reopened to the public.

History
The first record on castle dates back to 1164. In 1269 because of political discords with local inhabitants it was leveled to the ground by the army of the nearby city of Lucca. The castle became the seat of the marquises of Massa. It was visited by Dante Alighieri, who supposedly envisioned the descending circles of Hell, that inspired the corresponding part of his Divine Comedy. According to legend, Dante saw the great funnel-shaped cave lying below, surrounded by a series of ledges with the slopes converging to the stream.

he Brunella Fortress dominates the strategic Aulla village from on high, located where the river Magra and Aulella meet.

Various theories surround when it was built and who it was built for, despite the fact the the building’s architecture is type for the age of transition.

One theory is that the fortress was constructed at the end of the 1400s for the lord of Aulla at that time Jacopo Ambrogio Malaspina, whereas the second hypothesis has it that it was founded by Giovanni delle Bande Nere, the condottiero who moved to Aulla in the early 16th century, who commissioned Antonio da Sangallo the Elder with the plans.

The fortress is now home to the Lunigiana Natural History Museum, which focuses on the history and changes in the local area.

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Brunella Fortress

Known from documents since the 8th century A.D., the Aghinolfi Castle is an exceptional example of medieval military architecture, which attracted the attention of scholars already in the 19th century. The castle’s complex water supply system dating to the mid 15th century is particularly interesting for the knowledge of hydraulic technology. On the roof terrace of the octagonal keep, the original terracotta canalizations that collected water to convey it to the cistern were repristinated on the occasion of the 2001 restoration. Thanks to a glass floor, the bottom of the cistern exhibits copies of ceramic containers (the originals found there date to the late 16th century).

Aghinolfi Castle

The Castle of Riomaggiore was built in the 13th century by order of Marquis Turcotti, lord of Ripalta, and it is one of the most important historical edifices in Cinque Terre. Indeed, the construction works were initiated by the marquis in 1260, but they were completed by the Genovese, after a period during which the property passed to Nicolo Fieschi. Back then, the Republic of Genoa was interested in strengthening the defensive system of Riomaggiore, and the castle was part of this project.

The square-based castle overlooks the sea, and, at its turn, it is overtopped by two circular towers which flank the entrance. In time, the castle underwent significant structural alterations, not to mention it was also used as a cemetery (in the early 19th century). The Oratory of Saint Rocco is located in the vicinity of the castle. At present, the edifice is used for cultural purposes, being home to sundry events. It can be reached by climbing the abrupt road which leads from the train station to the castle. It is also accessible from the courtyard of the Church of Saint John the Baptist of Riomaggiore. The castle is also locally known as Castellazzo of Cerrico.

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