Castello di Fosdinovo

Via Papiriana, 2 - 54035 Fosdinovo - Massa   see map - Contact
Dating back to the mid-twelfth century, the Malaspina Castle of Fosdinovo rises north of Tuscany between the Tyrrhenian Sea coast and the Apuan Alps. Today the castle houses a museum, a cultural center and a cozy bed and breakfast.

Castello di Fosdinovo History


The construction of this imposing fortress, which blends incredibly with the sandstone rock so as to seem carved in the stone, began in the second half of the twelfth century. The strategic point on which stands the Malaspina Castle of Fosdinuovo easily allowed to control the Lunigiana and the coastal areas and became the political and military center of the Malaspina dello Spino Fiorito.

The structure, among the largest of the Tuscan fortified complexes, underwent various extensions and renovations between the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century while further enlargements took place in the sixteenth century, acquiring the appearance and size of the Renaissance court.

Today the castle of Fosdinovo is composed of a quadrangular plan with four towers, a semicircular bastion, two internal courtyards, hanging gardens, loggias and terraces. The eighteenth-century entrance door, formerly protected by a drawbridge, leads into a small romantic-style courtyard from where large flights of stairs lead to the large central courtyard. Here, passing through an elegant Renaissance portico and a sixteenth-century marble portal, you reach the rooms of the Castle, decorated and frescoed in the late 1800s: the entrance hall, the room of Dante Alighieri (where, according to Giovanni Boccaccio, the great poet stayed during the period of exile), the dining room with a large eighteenth-century fireplace, the large living room with the neighboring salons and the room of the trabocchetto with the torture room, where it is said that the marquise Cristina Pallavicini eliminated their lovers making them fall in the hatch at the foot of the bed.

In the most beautiful rooms of the manor is the B & B run by the Malaspina family, where the warm hospitality is reserved for the dearest friends: each room is unique for furnishings and views, and breakfast is served in a Renaissance loggia from which you can enjoy of the magnificent panorama of the Apuan Alps. In the lounges it is also possible to organize lunches and dinners for special events.

In the castle there is also a museum that crosses the entire structure of the building, from prisons to panoramic towers, allows you to deepen the aspects related to the history of the Malaspina family and the architecture of the castle. The museum space, designed to be pleasantly usable by all age groups, ranges from collections of coins, pottery, weapons and tools of torture, to the salons painted by Gaetano Bianchi and the room of Dante Alighieri and then finally satisfy the curiosity more with a stop in the legendary ghost room.

Castello di Fosdinovo

Time period
  • Middle Ages
Where
  • Italy, Massa
Historical figures
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Castello di Fosdinovo
  Via Papiriana, 2 - 54035 Fosdinovo
  +39 0187 680013
  www.castellodifosdinovo.it

Castello di Fosdinovo
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Apartments / Rooms for rent / Bed&Breakfast Apartments / Rooms for rent / Bed&Breakfast
Museum / Monument Museum / Monument

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