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 Western
Limentra or Limentra of Treppio, western Limentrella or Limentrella of Sambuca,
are the names that identify three different streams, the springs of which
are near one another at the medieval monastery of the Taona Fountain. They
form a high valley located on the other side of the ridge on the side of
the river Po that was once controlled by Pistoia.
The Castle of Sambuca, once an ancient Episcopal property of Pistoia, played
an important strategic role in controlling one of the main roads connecting
north to south. Since the wars between Byzantines and Longobards, the castle
had ended up under the influence of Pistoia, to whom it was finally assigned
after the peace treaty of Viterbo in 1219, stipulated by the cities of Pistoia
and Bologna thanks to the mediation of Cardinal Ugo, Bishop of Ostia and
Velletri. The Episcopal bulwark controlled both the border of the city of
Bologna and the important road to the valley of the Po, one of the side
streets of the Francigena Road. During the 13th century, taking advantage
of the precarious situation between the people of Sambuca and their Lord,
the Municipality of Pistoia was able to tighten its control over the castle,
providing the Bishop with the armed protection essential to defend its properties,
so peripheral yet strategically important.
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 The
Statute of 1291 |
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 One
of the oldest statutes of the Italian Medieval municipalities is that of
Sambuca Pistoiese of 1291, preserved at the National Archive of Pistoia.
The statute, edited by Quinto Santoli in 1913 based on a former transcription
carried out by Ludovico Zdekauer, has recently been republished in commemoration
of its 700th anniversary, after the original was recovered. As in statutes
dating back to the same period, it accurately reports the rules that were
to be strictly followed by the 200 inhabitants of the little village situated
on the hillside.
| The
Francigena Road |
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Among the numerous itineraries used by pilgrim travelers going to Rome there
is that of Sambuca, "a small way in the system of the medieval pilgrimage
that led all the way to Santiago of Compostela, Rome and even Jerusalem"
(B. Homes, Tre viaggi lungo la Limentra occidentale, in Le Limentre, Porretta
Terme 2006, p. 255).
This is confirmed in a document dating back to the 13th century, written
by the rector of the San Bartolomeo hospital, called 'Pratum Episcopi' or
Spedaletto, where it clearly mentions the purpose of assistance: "our
house, dearest brothers, is built on the alps of Pistoia and Bologna, on
the road called Francigena that leads quickly to Rome and S.Giacomo, for
the honour of God and Bartolomeo Apostle and all the other saints, for the
hospitality of the poor and passers-by, for the meals provided to the disabled
and misers and for the salvation of the living, of our benefactors and the
defunct believers. (R. Zagnoni, Gli ospitali medievali lungo le strade della
montagna bolognese e pistoiese, in Le vie degli eserciti, dei mercanti,
dei pellegrini: la via Romea, Bologna 1992, p. 51).
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| The
"stones" of Sambuca |
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 The
walls of the fortified villages, towers, churches and shrines, houses, rustic
terracing, paved village and territorial roads, together with the numerous
symbols of an economy linked to the exploitation of the limited local resources
(drying huts, mills, coal huts, stables and store rooms) give the area of
Sambuca an organic and stony feel, where wood and stone (pretty much the
only materials used at the time) and the same shapes of the constructions
take on the features of primary elements, with ancestoral and primordial
imprints.
 As emphasized
by Bill Homes, author of an accurate and passionate exploration of the rural
architecture of the territory of Limentre, "the close link between
places and materials used to construct, together with their direct correspondence
to the applications for which they were created, make these buildings seem
as though they had simply grown out of the land of the mountain and were
an integral part of it" (B. Homes, Architettura rurale in Le valli
della Sambuca. Natura, storia ambiente, a cura di P. Balletti e P. Gioffredi,
Comune di Sambuca 1997).
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| One
thousand years of history and culture |
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 The
story of Sambuca's valleys is celebrated in the fresco by the painter Paolo
Maiani found under the Lodges of Pavana, painted in occasion of the thousandth
anniversary of the town (998-1998). This piece of art summarizes, in four
scenes, the historical and literary myth of these mountains, caught between
the past and the present: the "Consegna del diploma dell'Imperatore
Ottone III al vescovo Antonino" (the giving of a diploma from Emperor
Antonio III to Bishop Antonio), which in 998 confirmed the consignment of
the "Villam de Pàvano" amongst other possessions; to the
Bishop's revenue of Pistoia; the "Visita di Cino da Pistoia alla tomba
di Selvaggia de' Vergiolesi", the woman loved by the poet, who died
in 1313 in the Castle of Sambuca on the backdrop of the fighting between
the "Whites" and "Blacks"; the recent heroic deeds of
Pavana, with the representation of legendary, even though not so famous,
places and characters (like the Mill, the Pontaccio -"Ugly Bridge"-,
Limentra, the characters of the tailor Gino Nativi called "Gòcchia",
of "Almina the Paiara" and Dante called Poldo) introduced by their
modern singer, the "pavanese" Francesco Guccini, also represented
in the painti ng.
Tales and characters that belong to these valleys but live in the collective
imagination thanks to the literary transfiguration of the "Cròniche
epafàniche" (Milan 1990), thus called to recall the chronicles
of Pavana and hinting at their revelatory nature or epiphany, and to the
songs by Guccini: the most memorable being Amerigo, which movingly recalls
the mystery of an ephemeral existence, mirror of one's face, one's origins
and the underlying power of childhood memories, left but not lost "in
the chestnut groves of the Apennines". |
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| Borders
and Dialects |
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 The
territory of Sambuca, considered a boundary area, linguistically represents
more of a link and contact between different realities than a line of separation
or closure. The physical characteristics, historical events and age-old
isolation of these mountain communities have allowed, until recent years,
the survival of such extremely interesting linguistic features, which have
been largely interpreted by scholars. Depending on how much they were influenced
by the Tuscan idiom, the dialects of Sambuca can be subdivided in three
initial areas plus a fourth (the treppiese), each with their own phonetic
characteristics: the area of Pavana; the area of Sambuca (Lagacci, Posola,
Campeda, Taviano); the southern area (Frassignoni, Torri, Monachino); Treppio.
The dialect of Pavana can be considered "a typical Tuscan dialect,
deeply affected by Emilian characteristics" (F. Guccini, Dizionario
del dialetto di Pavana una comunità fra Pistoiese e Bolognese, Pavana
Pistoiese 1998, p. 9). In general, the dialects of the High Reno (as well
as those spoken on the stretch of land between La Spezia and Rimini) have
their roots in a language system that acted as seam between the two main
Neo-Latin languages, a sort of "bridge-language" between Northern
and Southern Italy.
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| Roads,
hostels and customs along the road from Pistoia to Bologna |
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 Before
the construction of the modern state road 64, completed in 1847 at the
end of the Grand Duchy of the Lorenas, there were numerous routes along
the Limentra valleys that led to the border with the Papal State, and
the historiography documenting the pre-modern road system speaks of "sheaves"
of roads rather than individual itineraries. These had to include an alternative
higher route in case the lower route was not practicable. Amongst the
many routes, we find: the "Strada di Casale", the old mountain
track on the medieval road of Sambuca, which on cadastral maps is also
known as " local road of Faggeta called Lombarda"; the "main
road of Treppio", which led to the Papal State border town of Carpineta
crossing through Badia, Taona and Treppio; the "main road from Pistoia
to the customs of Lentula" following the stream Limentra and the
modern road from Pistoia to Riola.
During the past centuries, many free hosting facilities sprang up along
the main roads and specifically on the most impervious mountain stretches.
The most important is surely the "hostel or hospice" known as
Pratum Episcopi on the Francigena road of Sambuca, created by the St.
Bartholomew and St. Antonino
some time in the11th century. The architectural structure of the Hostel,
of which we have inherited splendid documents and plans, included the
Church, the sleeping quarters of monks and lay brothers and the hospital
for travelers that was in a separate building but connected to the church
by a raised covered passage. There were also a tavern and two stables:
one for the monks' horses and a bigger one for the wealthier travelers.
The old boundary with the Papal State in the territory of Sambuca, represented
by both the river Reno and the present boundary between the provinces
of Pistoia and Bologna, still exists today in a series of toponyms (place-names)
and objects that recall the age-old presence of a border line between
"foreign states". Among such toponyms are those of "Fosso
dei Confini" (Border Ditch), "Dogana" (Customs) given to
a house in Carpineta, also found in the towns of Taviano and Pavana. In
Carpineta, "Dogana" was the old 17th century customs (which
can be seen today in a beautiful cartographic representation by Architect
Fallani) near the bridge where the road from Pistoia, called "via
maestro dei muli" (main mule road), forked off in two directions:
to the left going past the stream Limentra towards "Bagno della Porretta"
or going straight heading towards the border, where used to be the Papal
Customs in a town called Moscacchia or Moscaccia. Whilst in Pavana, the
customs were built in 1846 to service the newly built road, known today
as "Porrettana". There is another toponym, also connected to
the boundary, called "Termine" (End) that refers to a wood south
of the Tosa and is "countersigned by an old boundary stone between
the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal State" (Dizionario toponomastico
del Comune di Sambuca Pistoiese, a cura di N. Rauty, Pistoia 1993, p.
167). Some of these old boundary stones can still be found nowadays along
the stretch of boundary that goes from Pavana to Gavigno (one of which
is reproduced by B. Homes, Le Limentre, Porretta Terme 2006, p. 77).
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