Home > Region > Gorfigliano

Gorfigliano

It is the most populous center of the Municipality of Minucciano and is located on the slopes of Monte Pisanino. It extends along the Acqua Bianca valley at a height of 690 m. above sea level. The village boasts very ancient origins and is mentioned for the first time in a 793 sales contract, during the Frankish reign of Charlemagne and his son Pepin the Short.

Originally the town stood around the ancient castle of Lombard origin, located on a hill that the inhabitants still call "home" and which is located not far from the current inhabited center that once housed only the huts for the shelter of cattle and fodder. The abandonment of the ancient settlement was gradual over time, but became definitive following the earthquake of 1920 and today it is possible to access it to visit the ancient cemetery, the Old Church, the object of a precious restoration and expansion thanks to the work of a group of volunteers in the 80s and the Museum of Identity of the Upper Garfagnana "Olimpio Cammelli".

In today's inhabited center there are, instead, the small Oratory of Sant'Antonio and the Church of Saints Giusto and Clemente, patrons of the village, built between 1933 and 1935, where the boulder altars and other furnishings previously belonged are kept to the Old Church.
Of great artistic importance is the fresco, depicting the dying Christ, by the master Pietro Annigoni, preserved inside the Pancetti Chapel in the new village cemetery.

Since 1900 the history of Gorfigliano has coincided above all with that of the excavation in the marble basin of the Acqua Bianca, which in the past has directly employed over a thousand workers and which still today represents an important part of the local economy. Closely linked to the marble quarries, it is one of the major festivals in the country: the "Madonnina dei Cavatori", whose celebration takes place on the first Sunday of August and is preceded, on Saturday evening, by a fireworks display that brings together many spectators.

Another manifestation, also very followed and of a very ancient origin, is the "Nataleccio", tall cylindrical constructions created through the "weaving" of tree branches around a high pole, which are the object of competition between the districts of the town and the nearby hamlets and which is set on fire on the evening of 24 December at 18.