Barga, in its heyday during the late Renaissance, was the westernmost city in the Grand Duchy of Florence. Most of the buildings in the old town date from around 1500 through the1800’s. There are still residents whose family ancestors were titled nobility from that period.
My old farmhouse is on a mountainside above the deep valley of the Ania River, or Torrent as it is known, and looks out on to another mountainside to the southeast. These mountains are spurs of Monte Giovo, in the northern Apennines.
I was always fascinated in winter when the leafless chestnut forest on the mountains opened vast vistas where you could see for miles and exposed all of the dwellings and outbuildings that were hidden to view the rest of the year. One structure that particularly intrigued me was what seemed to be a shelter, just a post supported roof, high up on the ridge directly in front of the kitchen window. I wondered how you got there, until one day my neighbor, whose family have been in the area for countless generations, explained carefully that he could ride there on his horse on one of the ancient and elaborate system of mule tracks that criss cross these mountains and served as the main roads connecting the farms and still are today the legal rights of way, open to hunters and mushroom pickers. Or, he said, you could go toward Coreglia and simply drive up the other side of the mountain and, that it was the Bocce court of a wonderful family restaurant I’d been to several times.
Bacchionero is a remote village deep up into that mountain range and it was an active farming community in the 18th century. It was originally within the confines of the ancient watershed of the Florentines including Lago Santo. Villagers and visitors traveled from farm to village on foot or by mule on the well trod tracks. The village thrived. Winter snow came early, but prepared and well stocked, the large families of up to ten children, hunkered down, stayed put and kept warm by the hearth in their solidly built stone houses.
The Bertacchi family was one of the noble families of the late renaissance period. Their grand palazzo, now Casa Cordati in Via di Mezzo, was renowned as the palazzo in which at least one of the grand dukes of Tuscany were entertained, and dates from that same period when the originally named Porta Mancianella was renamed Porta Reale in honor of the nobles’ visits.
Bacchionero was part of the Bertacchi family holdings and in 1784 Dottor Anton Filippo Bertacchi was given verbal permission by the Archbishop of Lucca to build a church for his villagers, who were otherwise isolated and unable to get to church, which was such an integral part of their lives, particularly in winter. And a grand church it was for such a remote site. It could hold sixty seated or up to eighty including standing room, seeking spiritual peace, serenity, quietude, safety and security. It served sixteen small villages from Tiglio to Coreglia Antelminelli.
The church was dedicated to San Lorenzo, the patron of faith and charity, whose saint’s day is celebrated on August 10. From 1959 until 1963 the intrepid Don Cola of Tiglio traveled by foot, bike or eventually motorbike to serve mass there. In 1963 the village was no longer much inhabited so the church was deconsecrated and fell to ruin.
Fast forward fifty years to August 10, 2013. An older, but still fit, Don Giuseppe Cola presided at Mass for 100 enthusiastic parishioners, some of whom arrived on foot from many surrounding communities, at a makeshift but solid altar of stones amidst of the ruins of the stone houses and the church, in remembrance of a way of life established over two hundred and twenty nine years earlier at Bacchionero.
Enzo Tognieri of Coreglia called the village the lieu of lost souls. San Lorenzo, August 10th, is also known as the night of the shooting stars, when you can make a wish.
The temperature has dropped dramatically. I’ve lit the fire in my wood stove in this modern apartment in a 400 year old building. Listening to the chestnut logs' characteristic pop keeps me company. There were snow flurries this morning and there is light snow in the forecast.
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