Castello Malaspina di Fosdinovo — Bianca, walled up alive

OVERVIEW

The castle of Fosdinovo, in the Lunigiana between Liguria and Tuscany, merges with the sandstone rock it stands on. A Castrum Fosdinovense appears in a document of Lucca in 1084, and the fortress was built from the second half of the 12th century, first for the bishop-counts of Luni. It was the main residence of the Marquises of Fosdinovo, of the Malaspina 'dello Spino Fiorito', from the 14th to the 18th century, and belongs today to their descendants through the female line, the Torrigiani-Malaspina.

HISTORY

The bishops of Luni fought the Malaspina for the land until the Peace of Castelnuovo of 1306, negotiated by Dante Alighieri, a friend of Moroello Malaspina; the formal cession to the Malaspina came only in 1340, to the condottiere Spinetta Malaspina (1282–1352). The family's later history was violent in fact: Marquis Giacomo II, considered given to excess, accused his son Andrea of attempted parricide, and of his sons and successors Ippolito was killed by his brother Ferdinando, who was then executed. The castle had three trapdoors with knives fixed point-upward at the bottom, and an iron arm with a pulley on the corner tower from which the tortured were hung in public view until they died.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The most famous legend is that of Bianca Maria Aloisia Malaspina — died 1690, or in the 13th century in other versions — daughter of Marquis Giacomo II or of an ancestor of Spinetta, walled up alive in the castle by her own father for an affair with a stable boy. (The article notes that Giacomo II in fact died in 1663.) Another tells of the marchioness Cristina Adelaide Pallavicino (1652–1723), who after entertaining her many lovers dropped them through the trapdoor at the foot of her bed in the 'room of the trapdoor'. Several witnesses say they have seen paranormal phenomena in the castle and the ghost of Bianca Malaspina.

VISITING

The castle is open to visitors and fully furnished.