ROCCA DI VALLE DI CASTRIGNANO

The Rocca di Castrignano is a historical structure of late medieval origin located on the Via Longobarda, one of the directions of the Via Francigena. Here, since time immemorial, top quality Parmigiano Reggiano has been produced. It is possible to stay overnight in one of the houses of the architectural complex, protected by the Fine Arts and finely restored, to experience with kindness the territory and the landscape of the landscape protection area of the Bosso and Sporno mountains, and of the Mab Unesco area of the Tuscan Apennines. Emiliano.

The Rocca di Valle di Castrignano is an intact building of late medieval origin, dated between the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth century, which are flanked - without distorting or modifying the older volumes - buildings built up to the mid-eighteenth century, that characterized the passage from fortification to residence in the history of architecture.
The presence of the main tower identifies the profile of the architectural complex, in which there are 4 tower-houses. To these are added other buildings of the same period, located in the upper and lower village of Valle di Castrignano, admirable examples of this type, typical of the northern Apennines and therefore of the Emilian hilly and mountain belt.
Starting from the end of the nineteenth century, with the construction of the first small toll booth, the Rocca di Valle di Castrignano is characterized by the production of Parmigiano Reggiano by the family that still owns it: history, landscape and agricultural activity are therefore a together always inseparable.

HISTORY
The study is in progress on the historical origins of the Rocca di Valle di Castrignano. It was owned by the noble Cavatorta family until the nineteenth century  to then pass to the Campelli family up to the present day.
In fact, in the Rocca there is a portrait of the Physical Doctor Domenico Cavatorta, painted by the painter Bisoli in the Academy of Parma in the year 1836, during the regency of the Academy by Maria Luigia.
The Rocca owes its location to a lesser known branch of the Via Francigena, the "Via Longobarda" which winds its way through its walls, used in the Middle Ages to connect Parma through Carignano, Monte Vetrola, Castrignano, Riano, up to the Cirone pass. and then to the Lunigiana and to Rome.It is therefore configured as a garrison to this director and to the territory of the Val Fabiola, once dominated by the Castle of Castrignano, depicted in the Golden Chamber of the Castle of Torrechiara and with which the Rocca had an economic relationship.

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