| Probably
in the early Middle Age, due to the characteristic of the
location, a fortified settlement rose up on the hill and
documents mention a site called Massa since the year 882.
Surely it was situated where today we can still admire
the mighty castle.
The inner ward viewed fron the palace.
The castle was the seat of the marquises of Massa and was
always closely related to the coast and the sea, due to
its strategic position for fighting against the pirates.
From the year 1164 we have records of the castle, when Emperor
Frederick I allotted part of this to Obizzo Malaspina. About
a century later, in 1268, Massa was occupied by the troops
of Corradino of Svevia, who devastated the whole territory.
One year later the castle was leveled to the ground by the
army of the nearby city of Lucca that didn't tolerate the
willingness of the Massa inhabitants to please the Emperor's
troops.
Great part of the castle's history
in the first centuries of the late Middle Age are obscure.
When the marquises of Massa were ousted the Malaspina
family took possession of the castle and conceded it
to Castruccio Castracani, gentleman of Lucca, in the
first years of 14th century. Until the first half of
the 15th century Massa and its castle passed under the
authority of the Lucchesi first, the Pisane then and
of the Florentine for last. After this time Massa became
fief of the marquises of the Malaspina family of Fosdinovo.
Between 15th and 17th century the new owners underwent
a series of drastic changes and the castle became their
finest residence.
From the middle of 1600 the main function
of the castle was military and at the end of the pre-unitary
states it served until the the year 1946 as a prison. It
was recently restored and reopened to the public.
We can consider the castle formed by three
main architectural units: the surrounding bastionated walls
full of gun ports and loopholes, the residential palace
and the original medieval keep. These parts are preceded
by a kind of barbican that with its walls enclose the outer
ward, from here start the ramp of access, endowed of a drawbridge,
at the real, and unique, castle entrance. All this area
is under the fire of the bastions and the gun ports of the
surmounting walls.
The rock where rise the keep.
The curtain walls, delimiting the northwest front, create
another large ward marked by a long wall walk, with two
lines of gun ports pointing the sea and the town, and connect
the northern rampart with the southern one. This part of
the construction is dated between the 15th and the 16th
century, built raising the preexisting medieval enclosure,
which battlements can still be clearly seen in certain parts
of the walls. A ditch carved in stone and other defenses,
in great part lost, connect this courtyard with the ward
of the residential palace, a renaissance building with an
'L' form and two richly decorated facades. In the north
of this ward a drawbridge, now disappeared, connected the
palace with the purely military core of the castle: the
keep.
This extreme defensive structure
of the complex is autonomous and separated from the rest
of the castle. It was built using an unusual technique:
the existing rocks was smoothed creating vertical rock
faces giving an incredible resistance at the construction.
All the upper area of the castle housed the formerly
medieval structure. The only original part are today
a little cistern and the base of a tower, perhaps once
the highest of the castle used as watchtower.
The castle is now opened to the public
an visitable by a fee, but there are still some works
of restoration going on.
It's aòsp a permanent exposure of Archaeological
(Malaspina Castle, Massa) collection of material of roman
age and paleontological collection of the paleolitica and
neolithic age |
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