Crasciana was our first stop on last Sunday’s walk among the villages of the Val di Lima organized by the Vicaria di Lima and the Comune of Bagni di Lucca. Situated in a fantail-like layout, on the south side of the Lima valley at a height of 2621 feet, it’s one of the highest village in our Comune and has some wonderful views as a result.
Vigilio Contrucci, our guide for this part of the walk, pointed out all the villages one can see from Crasciana.
Truly, its subtitle ‘La Pomposa’ (translated as ‘splendid ‘ rather than ‘pompous’) suits Crasciana rather well as it mightily dominates the valley from its stratospheric location.
We have been many times to Crasciana but a guided walk does enable us to see familiar places in a novel light besides teaching us previously unknown facts about them. Like so many other villages in the Tuscan Appennines Crasciana owes its foundation to land given by the Roman Empire to its centurions upon their retirement, in this case a certain Carsius.
Crasciana was once located further down from its present site but landslides forced its inhabitants to move further up the hill. Only the church of ‘Santo Della Villa’ now remains of the original village. A religious procession is made every three years from this church to the newer one, dedicated to Saint Jacopo and Frediano, at the top of the village. Our choir has sung at one of these events.
Virgilio led us from the village’s main square, repaved some years ago when it was inaugurated with a concert by a brilliant Pink Floyd cover band we attended (see my post at https://longoio.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/walls-but-no-wall/), to the parish church.
Although originally dating from the thirteenth century the building has been considerably altered and enlarged over the centuries. It has a prettily decorated interior,
a haunting ancient crucifix
and a fine 18th century Agati organ which we have heard played on other visits to Crasciana.
The campanile, or bell tower, of the church reminds one that in former times these places were not just spiritual strongholds but temporal ones too.
Our guide pointed out to us the original line of walls surrounding Crasciana, their gates and the as yet unexcavated site of the castle.
Crasciana is the birthplace of the engraver Bartolomeo Nerici. We attended a conference on this extraordinary person (described in my post at . https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/enlightened-engraver/). One of the contributors to the conference was Angela Amadei, familiar as Bagni di Lucca’s head librarian. Her family originate from Crasciana and one of her ancestors was the poet Bartolomeo Amadei. These mountain villages were certainly not all populated by ‘mute, inglorious Miltons’!
Our second ‘high C’ was Casabasciana, at a height of 1876 feet a little lower down from Crasciana, with whom it has shared an often heated rivalry over the years.
Acquaintance and noted local historian Bruno Micheletti met us at the oratory of the Assumption in the upper part of the village, the first of three religious buildings our visit here was focused on.
The full Italian title of the oratory is ‘Oratorio dell’Assunta in localita’ Murrotto – the murrotto or muro rotto referring to the broken wall where it is located. Built in 1691 the oratory is preceeded by a high and graceful portico. Within is the effigy of the Assumpted (raised bodily to heaven) Virgin and some fine decorations including a painted ‘cassone’ ceiling.
We descended into the heart of Casabasciana, the Piazza Cavour surrounded by the entrance to the parish church dedicated to Saint Quirico and Giulitta, the old village hall, a chapel and a fountain.
Bruno mentioned that the locals used to play ‘palla elastica’ (an Italian version of hand ball squash) in the square much to the annoyance of the priest who was conducting the church services. A second square was, therefore, built further down where the village’s main social activities now take place and where there is a bar and shop.
The church is notable for having the only wholly baroque interior in the valley. All the side altars are in a similar design with a particularly angelic main altar. It’s within this altar that the remains of the village’s patron saint are entombed. Saint Primo was a four year old put to death for his Christian beliefs by a particularly bestial Roman emperor. You can read more about this horrific story and see how Casabasciana celebrates its martyr in my post at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/child-murder-and-martyrdom-in-casabasciana/.
Our last ecclesiastical monument was the Pieve of Sala, originally Casabasciana’s parish church.
Until 1917 the only place one could get baptised in was a Pieve so these buildings had to be located within easy reach of a number of villages. When local churches were allowed to perform baptism many of these pieve were closed up and abandoned. This was the case with the one at Sala which meant that what we were now able to view was a virtually unspoilt late Romanesque building. There were no fancy decorations here: just bare walls, three aisles separated by columns and a semi circular apse.
The column capitals are carved with a mixture of religious and political symbols. The six leaved circle, for example, represents the six days of the creation and the labyrinthine spiral stands for the quest for spiritual truth.
Once baptism was practised by total immersion and the place where the font formerly stood is marked by a large stone circle on the church floor which originally stood at a deeper level.
Remains of the font itself are placed in a corner near to the more modern ‘mini font’ now used by the church.
We skipped the lunch provided by Ferdinando’s Villa Aurora (we have eaten deliciously there on previous occasions) and headed home to our own lunch after a truly interesting and diverting morning spent among those two high C’s of our valley: Crasciana and Casabasciana.
There’s one more visit in this series planned. It’s on the 23rd of August and concentrates on Bagni di Lucca. As with the other walks pre-booking is essential for groups are limited to a maximum of ten persons as part of covid19 precautions.
I am sure that since these walking visits are proving successful we shall be able to look forwards to many more of them soon.
