The Castle
The Castle, a feud of the branches of the Malaspina del Ramo Fiorito holdings from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, is of great importance historically, and above all, architecturally. The construction of the massive fortress, which merges with the underlying sandstone rock so the whole structure seems carved in stone, began in the second half of the twelfth century. Built like defense of Fosdinovo primitive Castro, only in the 1340 was officially ceded by Noble of Fosdinovo to Spinetta Malaspina. He created so the Marquisate of Fosdinovo staying in the Castle for the rest of his life.
In the year 500, Gabriele and then Lorenzo Malaspina, added the Renaissance Court, while in '600, under Jacopo Malaspina, the castle reached its maximum size.
The basic design of the Castle of Fosdinovo consists of a square with four round towers, a semicircular rampart, two internal courtyards, a central courtyard , patrol trenches above the roof, hanging gardens, galleries and an ancient defensive wall.
Protected once by a drawbridge, the main gateway enters into a thirteenth century romanesque style courtyard, which is framed at the base by marble columns supporting overhead arcades. From this small courtyard, where guns were once kept at the ready to defend the castle, rises a broad flights of stairs leading to a large central courtyard.
The courtyard boasts an elegant Renaissance porch with stone columns, a well, and a beautiful sixteenth-century marble portal leading to interior rooms of the castle, which were decorated and painted pre-1800. Next are the entrance hall, the dining room with a large fireplace and pharmacy ceramics from the 600’s, the throne hall, the great hall and the room of trabocchetto (the trap room) with a torture room lying below. It is said that the evil marchioness Cristina Pallavicini, eliminated her lovers by surpising them with a trap door located at the foot of the bed, dropping them into the dungeon or torture room. Trapdoors such as this were common in the castle. There were three of this traps, two in the veranda close to the garden and one in a corner-tower. At their base fixtures were sharp knives with the tip pointing upwards, so sharp that when one fell through a trapdoor, they were dropped immediately into death. In addition to these terrible instruments of torture, there was another even more terrible. It was like an iron arm that jutted from the wall of the tower, and was applied to a pulley and a ring walled on earth, connected by a rope. The victim was tortured and left to hang under the eyes of the whole country, until they were dead.
The oldest east tower, is known as the "Dante chamber”, where, according to tradition, the supreme poet slept when he was hosted at the castle during his period of exile. The frescoes in the great central hall depict the very old friendship between Dante and the Malaspina family.
The visit of the Castle continues upstairs among countless other furnished rooms, and along the exterior walkway above the roof, which offers a panoramic view of unparalleled beauty.
