Until 31 March 2008, anyone in Ameglia who needed a new identity card walked up to piazza Sforza and stepped into a castle of the bishops of Luni. Then the town offices moved to a new building in the modern, lower part of the village, and the castrum de Ameliae went back to being what it had always been: the stronghold around which the settlement gathered. The first firm record dates from 963, when an imperial diploma of Otto I lists Ameglia among the possessions of the bishop of Luni; the date of construction, on the other hand, has never been pinned down.
What to see
The shape of the building can be read in a few steps. The tower is circular in plan, the main block is rectangular and rises over two floors, and the whole is closed by a trapezoidal curtain wall that follows the line of the hill. This is no lordly palace dressed up as a fortress: it is a garrison post, and the gap between the bulk of the tower and the modest rooms behind it says so more clearly than any label.
The rest is told by the owners who followed one another. In 1174 the people of Pietracoperta took refuge here after the Republic of Genoa razed their village to strike at the Malaspina. The castle then served the bishop-counts of Luni, until in the 13th century it was occupied first by the men of Sarzana and then by Genoa; it passed to Castruccio Castracani, lord of Lucca, to the Visconti and, in the mid-15th century, to the Banco di San Giorgio of the Republic of Genoa.
Visiting
The castle stands inside the old centre, on piazza Sforza, and the only way up is on foot: cars stay outside the historic core and the last stretch is a climb through narrow lanes. Since 2008 the building has housed no municipal offices, so do not assume fixed opening hours: before walking up, ask the town hall whether the interior is open or an exhibition is running. From outside, in any case, the round tower and the curtain wall are fully legible from the square.
Our editors' tip
We suggest pairing Ameglia with Luni. The bishop-counts who held this castle for centuries came from there, and seeing the amphitheatre and the forum of the Roman town behind their authority changes how you look at the walls on piazza Sforza: no longer a village ruin, but the outpost of a diocese that kept watch on the mouth of the Magra. Do both on the same day, in that order.