Zeri

Zeri is the westernmost comune in Tuscany and in the whole of central Italy: it lies in the Lunigiana, on the ridge that divides the Magra valley from that of the Vara, and it is a scattered comune, with no real main village, made up of hamlets spread through the woods. The name comes from «Castrum Cerri», the castle of the Turkey oak wood, and a Turkey oak still stands in the coat of arms. The people of Zeri have always been jealous of those borders: the dispute with Suvero, begun in 1526, dragged on through armed clashes and provisional agreements until 1783, when the definitive boundaries were fixed.

In 1799 the population faced a Napoleonic detachment and drove it back as far as Borgotaro; half a century later, when the Pontremoli side of the Lunigiana was about to pass to the Duchy of Parma, the men of Zeri who opposed the transfer brought out those very weapons taken from the French. In 1944 the British major Gordon Lett chose the hamlet of Rossano as the base of the International Battalion, and the valleys paid for the round-ups with deaths, fires and the destruction of the old municipal archive. The motto on the arms, «Pro libertate pugnavi», recalls that here men fought for freedom.