Fosdinovo

When it speaks of Fosdinovo the thought it immediately races on her castle that is the most beautiful and more known in Tuscany and in the Country. It is really in this castle, residence of the Malaspinas, that Dante sojourned. From Fosdinovo, gives his height, an unique landscape can be admired: the sea and the hills. The Castle Malaspina - Fosdinovo The firt nucleuse of the castle at Fosdinovo was erected, probably during the Hight Middle Age, on the slopes of Mount Grosso in order to guard the access roads leading from the inland valleys of the Lunigiana to the sea. In the 13th century the nobles of Erberia, vassals of the Malaspina, chose Fosdinovo as the focal point for their fief and thus had improvements made to the pre-existing fortifications.

Spinetta Malaspina, who acquired the fief in 1340, and his nephew, Galeotto, ordered renovation of the fortress and expanded its defensive structures,characterised by the rounded flanking turrets, to the configuration which is largely conserved to this day. Over the next century (in particular from the 16th to the 17th century) the powerful local dynasty of the Malaspina family rendered the castle more suitable for its residential and diplomatic functions.The new palace which they had built with renaissance style portico and small loggias was included within the fortress walls by adding both the edifice proper and courtyards over the glacis and ramparts. Still today the castle is the property of the Marquis Torrigiani-Malaspina, who has overseen its restoration, wishing to reconstruct, for its educational and historic value, one of the most outstanding examples of ancient feudal residences.