VISIT TO THE CASTRIGNANO VALLEY ROCCA
THE ROCCA DI VALLE DI CASTRIGNANO IS PART OF THE CIRCUIT OF THE CASTLES OF THE DUCHY OF PARMA AND PIACENZA AND PONTREMOLI
THE VISIT It is possible, upon request, to visit the Rocca di Valle di Castrignano, some of the interiors, the cellars and the garden, and to stay overnight in one of the houses of the architectural complex, protected by the Fine Arts and finely restored. This is a way to get to know and experience the territory and landscape of the Bosso and Sporno mounts landscape protection area and the Mab Unesco area of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. The presence of the main tower identifies the profile of the architectural complex, in which four tower-houses stand. To these are added other buildings from the same period, located in the high and low hamlet of Valle di Castrignano, admirable examples of this typology, typical of the northern Apennines and thus of the Emilian hills and mountains. In the entire village of Valle di Castrignano there are still ten tower-houses, some well-preserved and still visible in their original form, others modified over the course of history. The tour, which lasts about an hour and a half, starts from the surrounding fields, a 5-minute walk from a special viewpoint from which it is possible to understand the profile and landscape of the complex. During the visit, the architectural features of the complex, the construction techniques, the environments and the ways of life that have followed the Rocca over the centuries will be explained at length.
HISTORY The Rocca di Valle di Castrignano is a historical structure of late-medieval origin located on the Via Longobarda, one of the main routes of the Via Francigena. The heart of the precious settlement, represented by the complex known as ‘La Rocca’, developed from the late Middle Ages as a defensive complex placed to guard the only road linking the castle of Castrignano, a possession once disputed between the powerful Terzi and Rossi families and depicted in the frescoes in the most important room of the Castle of Torrechiara called ‘Camera d'oro’. This branch of the Via Francigena, known at the time as the ‘Via dei Lombardi’ or ‘Via dei monti di Parma’, was travelled by pilgrims coming from Northern Europe to Rome via Parma, stopping in villages, parish churches and xenodochi along the way. Over the centuries, medieval towers were flanked by loggias, porticoes, gardens and a botanical garden; defensive functions were replaced by residential ones. It was in these years, between the 18th and 19th centuries, that the ancient defence towers took on the pleasant form of a country residence, linked to agricultural activity. The physician and physicist Domenico Cavatorta, owner of the Rocca, is portrayed at the age of 28 by the painter Bisoli in a picture painted in 1836 inside the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma of Duchess Maria Luigia of Austria. He was born here in 1808 and lived at the Rocca until his death on 2 March 1884. He is buried in the cemetery of Castrignano, where a beautiful plaque remembers him: ‘He helped many and was dear to each for his modesty, pleasantness and honesty’.