The patron saint of Viareggio is the Most Holy Annunciate Mary, celebrated on 25 March in the church dedicated to her, a Marian sanctuary that was originally the church of San Pietro. In the week before the feast, the traditional fair of the ciottorini takes place, established in 1755: in the Viareggio dialect, «ciottorini» are small toys and terracotta objects, once sold precisely on this occasion in the Old Viareggio district.
The first historical fact concerning Viareggio dates from 1169, with the construction of a wooden tower to guard the coastline; a few years later, in 1172, a stone military structure was erected, the Turris de Via Regia, named after the road leading to it. The territory was long contested between Pisa and Lucca for control of the sea outlet, until in the 16th century the Republic of Lucca had a new square tower built there to defend the port, today known as Torre Matilde due to a mistaken attribution to Duchess Matilda of Canossa: raised by one floor in the 16th century, it housed the town's public clock from 1703 and was used as a prison in the 19th century.
