The North Gate, recently restored, is one of the three access points to the village of Larciano Castello and has the same constructive and modular characteristics of the North-East Gate. Built using, as modular basis, the “Liutprand foot”, an ancient unit of measure of Longobard origin, it dates at the first phase of fortification of the ancient villa, at the end of the 11th Century AD by Counts Guidi di Modigliana, who, as early as the 10th Century, established a wide feud along the Montalbano and on the surrounding hills.

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Monument in Memory of the Massacre of the Fucecchio Marshland happened the 23 August 1944 in memory of the Tuscan Combatants who died for the homeland in the 1940-1945 war.

“The wonder and tragedy in the faces of the innocent!” This is the message which the artist Gino Terreni wants to convey with this magnificent monument, inaugurated in the presence of the President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, in memory of the Massacre of the Fucecchio Marshland. Between the spring and summer of 1944, at the end of World War II, many Italian regions were hit by Nazi massacres.

What not everyone knows is that Tuscany was one of the worst affected areas due to its strategic location. After the liberation of Rome by the Allies, in fact, the German Army acted on an “aggressive” retreat having as key points the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines and the Partisans. In the summer of 1944, because of the bombing, many families from the provinces of Pistoia and Florence left their homes to go and take refuge in the Fucecchio Marshland. Throughout the area around the marshes the troops belonging to the German 26th Armoured Division were displaced. On August 22nd, many soldiers went to the swamp; on their return, two days after the massacre, they claimed to have killed 200 Partisans, omitting that in fact the totality of the dead was composed exclusively of civilians. At around 6:00am on August 23rd, Nazi troops headed to the farm called “La Tabaccaia” where many displaced people were staying: these people were forced outside where they were shot on the spot.

This is the place at which this event is commemorated, the wonder and tragedy of the 175 innocent people, mostly women, children and elders who were about to be shot by the same Nazi soldiers that they had hosted in their homes. Let the power of numbers remember: among the victims of the Massacre of the Fucecchio Marshland there were 62 women, 25 people over 60 years old, 16 children under 18 years old, 10 children under 10 years old and 8 children below 2 years.

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The San Silvestro’s (St. Sylvester’s) Church has a Roman origin and traditionally it is said that in the same place, up to the beginning of the 4th Century AD, there was an old heathen temple transformed into a church during the pontificate of Pope Silvestro I (313 – 335 AD).
During the High Middle Ages it was under the jurisdiction of the more important Pieve of San Lorenzo a Vaiano and during the 15th Century it became a Parish (Parrocchia) and then a village church (a Pieve), joining in 1622 the newborn diocese of San Miniato.
Today it shows a single nave structure with a Latin Cross transept and a rectangular apse. The current plan is the result of a number of modifications during the centuries; among the most important we can mention the construction of the bell tower in 1784 and the demolition of two arcades in 1875 in order to increase the capacity of the church.
On the counter-façade there is the organ, perhaps the oldest in Valdinievole (16th – 17th century), with a front in carved, painted and gilded wood. At the entrance, two 17th century holy water stoups, the right one set on a 15th century column; inside a niche, a beautiful marble baptismal font (1532).

A curious and interesting painting depicts The Miracles of Saint Anthony between Saint Francis and Saint Michael the Archangel (1663). At the center of the choir, a 19th century painting with Saint Sylvester baptizing Constantine by Bartolomeo Valiani.

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More to visit in the Fucecchio Marshes

Housed in a farmhouse, the Museum of the Rural Life – Casa Dei, is located in an area of great historical and natural interest: the Fucecchio Marshland (Padule di Fucecchio). Created in collaboration with the Region of Tuscany and under the patronage of the Province of Pistoia and the City of Larciano as part of the project “Along the Migration Routes”, it has become part of the museum network of the Region of Tuscany since 2012.

The museum was born with the desire to recover, preserve and pass on the witness and values of rural civilization through the rich collection of tools, agricultural machinery, objects of daily life and collections of books (including encyclopaedias) photographs, documents and postcards.

Museo Casa Dei

Via Traversa di Brugnana
Località Bagnolo 51036 Larciano – PT
Cell. 3357789139
e-mail: associazionecasadei@gmail.com

www.museocasadei.it

More to visit in the Fucecchio Marshes

More to visit in Castelmartini