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’.