Pontremoli

Pontremoli's situated in Lunigiana, in the north of Tuscany, near Massa and Carrara, in the strip of land wedged between Liguria and Emilia. Pontremoli lies at the foot of the Apennines, about 250 meters above sea level, amidst mountains that reach almost two thousand meters. Pontremoli, defined by Federico II, "key and door of the Apennines", was mentioned for the first time in the travelogue of Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, around 990/994 AD, went to Rome following the ancient Via Romea or Francigena.

Medieval Oppidum with high towers, and market town situated in the middle of a range of green valleys Pontremoli was the meeting point of historic streets such as Monte Bardone (today Cisa), Fò Crosà, Borgallo, Bratello, and Cirone or Lombarda. Pontremoli has always been a place of welcome and hospitality as evidenced by the presence of many religious orders that have been registered here over the centuries.

From the 14th century, Pontremoli was seiged and desired by various Italian city-states as a means to expand their territorial domain, thanks to its importance and strategic roads. It was therefore a constantly-revolving alternation of rulers (Rossi di Parma, Scaligeri, Visconti, Sforza, French, Spanish), sometimes even for very short periods. In 1650, Pontremoli joined the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and began a period of political stability and economic prosperity, being favored on the trade route that linked northern Europe to the port of Livorno.

The economic and social improvement led to the transformation of the medieval oppidum village. In those years, Pontremoli was enriched with palaces, churches, it was built the Rose Theatre and the surrounding area was enriched with numerous country houses. Thus was born the new eighteenth-century Pontremoli, the result of the major exponents in what has been called the "Baroque in Pontremoli". Since then, the Middle Ages and the baroque have lived together, blending the ordered lines and geometry of the first with the soft and lively elements in the second.