Montignoso

From the thirteenth century Montignoso belonged to Lucca, within the vicariate of Pietrasanta; and when in 1514 the Florentines took Pietrasanta, Montignoso stayed Lucchese — which made it, in effect, an exclave: a piece of the republic of Lucca cut off from the rest and surrounded by other people's territory. Lucca cared about it: up to the seventeen hundreds the old castle on the hill was looked after and modernised, and it took the name of fortress of San Paolino, from one of the patron saints of the city — the owner's name written on the building. It remained Lucchese until 1847, when the treaty of Florence ceded it to the duchy of Modena, and the source notes that the transfer happened amid widespread discontent.

The castle is called Aghinolfi, from Agilulf, and it has the octagonal keep typical of the Lombards; before it there had been an observation point of the Ligurian Apuani, then a watchtower during the Roman expansion, then a Byzantine outpost. The first document that names the place beyond any doubt is of 753: Aistulf, king of the Lombards, gave his brother-in-law Anselm — founder and first abbot of the abbey of Nonantola — an olive grove near the castle, for the purpose of supplying oil for the lamps of the church. Montignoso has no single centre: the town hall is in one hamlet, the most populous is another, a third looks onto the sea, a fourth holds the sports ground. In 1938 the comune was merged with Massa and Carrara into a single comune called Apuania, which was suppressed in 1946. It stood on the Gothic Line, lost the fort of Cinquale and the bridge in front of it, and holds the gold medal for civil valour; and at Pasquilio there is a church built by the partisans of the Apuan bands.