| Altagnana | ||
 | ||
| State | Italy | |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Tuscany | |
| Altitude | 314 m a.s.l. | |
| Inhabitants | 400 (2018 estimate) | |
| Name inhabitants | Berticagnanesi | |
| Prefix tel | 39 0585 | |
| POSTAL CODE | 54030 | |
| Time zone | UTC 1 | |
| Patron | Santissima Annunziata (March 25) | |
Position
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Altagnana is a fraction of the municipality of Mass.
To know
Listed among the castles of the Massa area, it still retains traces of its historical past in the urban conformation and in the presence of some structures of medieval origin, such as the Porta di Berticagnana, built in the 14th century to defend the south-east side of the settlement.
Geographical notes
Located on the Apuan Alps. Lying on a ridge in the left valley of the Frigido, it continues to grow favored by a nodal position, a point of exchange and contact between the road system that went up from the coastal plain of Massa and that which went up from the innermost valley floor, connecting the villages of San Carlo Po Pariana, Antona, Canevara.
Along the narrow alleys you can see numerous marble margins, testimony of popular faith and of a world linked to the simple rhythms of nature.
Background
Of medieval origin, in the thirteenth century Altagnana is a small walled village known as Berticagnana and formed by a few buildings leaning against each other, around a central square. The ancient inhabited area was formed by a few houses around a small square, "connected to Pariana and Antona by the public road and crossed by the local road, it was closed by the Berticagnana gate on the only accessible side; the rest was protected by the steep sides of the hill. on which it stood, while the outermost houses, leaning against each other, formed a sort of wall ".
Altagnana was a rural town that lived on an agricultural, forestry-pastoral economy, which in any case had an important territorial role proven by the existence of numerous works of simple fortifications (palisades in timber and ditches) placed to defend the crops and the nuclei outside the village.
Traces of an agricultural economy can still be found today inside the town where you can see the remains of a screw mill, numerous ovens and a hand loom and several arcaded underpasses in which the most varied activities took place, from crafts to those related to agricultural processing.
Much richer in life and activity, the town was densely inhabited and active until the 1950s. There were seven bread ovens, but the mills were also different.
Another village tradition was the preparation of lard, a common food produced and consumed throughout the Frigido Valley since ancient times.
Today this tradition has been lost in Altagnana, but several marble lard basins remain as evidence, reused in various ways.
Until 2005 the town of Altagnana was surrounded by luxuriant vegetation, in particular by chestnut woods. On the evening of 10 April, before the inauguration ceremony of the monument to the Partisan ended, a whirlwind hit the town, which in the space of a single night saw 70% of the trees surrounding it felled. Never in the history of the country had a storm of such proportions occurred.
How to orient yourself
Altagnana: full screen map.How to get
By car
It can be reached by taking the provincial road from the center of Mass arrives as far as the Monte Pelato tunnel (or Poggio Pelato), at the Dress pass, on the border with the province of Lucca.
How to get around
What see
- Monument to the Partisan (In the small square that meets along the provincial road). Made in 2005 by the sculptor Brunello Pucci. The monument represents a human figure that detaches itself from a white marble wall, as if it had passed through a door of the same shape as the figure. It is dedicated to all the partisans of this Massese fraction, but in particular to the Fialdini twins, killed in the Turchino Massacre. This is the epitaph: "Crushed by the Nazi-Fascist stone, risen and risen in the marble of the Apuane to illuminate with their heroic example the impregnated citadel of freedom Altagnana to its heroic children the partisans".
Events and parties
- Panzanella Festival.
Last week of July. Known and renowned festival.
Last week of July. Known and renowned festival.
