Towers, fortresses and castles in the Piana di Lucca

Are you ready for a journey among towers, fortresses and castles, fortified villages, ladies and knights, battles and sieges in the Piana di Lucca?

Numerous fortifications and castellated villages remain of the quarrelsome and campanilistic Medieval and Renaissance Tuscany, fascinating landscapes of Tuscan history the Piana di Lucca itself can boast about.

The mighty Renaissance walls of the city of Lucca are the most powerful testimony of this and are only the conclusion of a history lived “in defence”.
In fact, the first city walls date back to the time of its foundation and are still recognisable in their layout within the complex urban design of the city.

The second curtain wall from the medieval period emerges more decisively on the entire eastern side in correspondence with today’s Via dei Fossi with the towers of Porta San Gervaso and, a little further north, with those of Porta di Borgo.

The Renaissance walls, which escaped many vicissitudes and a few military clashes, are today the most original of urban parks, a ring of more than 4 kilometres, 12 metres above the ground level and adorned with tree-lined avenues of local and exotic species.

In addition to the fortifications of Lucca, an articulated communication system made up of towers, stationings and other castles, fires and light refractions, the “Eye of Lucca” allowed for the protection of the entire plain and went further into the Serchio Valley, as far as Lucca’s possessions.

If you love traditions, a visit to Lucca on the days of San Paolino and Santa Croce is what you are looking for.

But it does not end there. On the tops of the hills, on the spurs in relief on the plain, on the narrow passages that allow access to this small plain, small castles and fortified villages rise up, reminiscent of turbulent past eras and frequent clashes, chivalrous characters and charming ladies.

Two fortifications control the strait that connects the Piana di Lucca to that of Bientina. They are the fortified village of Castelvecchio di Compito on a spur of Monte Pisano and the fortress of Montecarlo, rebuilt and reinforced several times to testify to the strategic position between the Piana di Lucca and Valdinievole. Further down, at the threshold of this passage, the Hospitale di Altopascio was also surrounded by walls.

Would you like to take a trip back in time? Inside those same walls, the village goes back to the days of the monastery, to the feast of San Jacopo in July, during which all the pilgrims are fed by the “calderon d’Altopascio” and monks and knights roam the courtyards.

On the opposite side of the plain, towards the coast, the small fortified village of Nozzano, whose name is legendarily linked to the Grand Countess Matilda of Canossa, guards the Ripafratta narrows. Slightly higher up, on the other bank of the Serchio river, the Pisan fortress of Ripafratta contrasts with it, and a scattering of watchtowers, some with strange names that evoke local characters and stories, is now just a picturesque but singular feature of the landscape.

You will have to walk along paths perfumed with strawberry trees in the hills of Lucca or dotted with orchids on Monte Pisano so eventually you will reach these little pieces of history and be fascinated by their unforgettable stories.