From Pontremoli to Filetto
After passing the convent of SS. Annunziata and the town of Pontremoli, the Francigena path runs along the sides of the CisaState Road between slight gradients up to the village of Ponticello, in the Comune di Filattiera.
Here the pilgrim is faced with a small “manual” of historical Lunigianesearchitecture: arches, vaults, portals, alleys in tunnels, but above all the characteristic “tower-houses”, ancient fortified houses once used as barns and warehouses.
Just south of Ponticello, cross the Caprio stream, upstream of which a wonderful view of the Apennines opens up, and continue until you meet again the state road in Migliarina.
The path crosses the ANPIL, the Magra River Protected Natural Area of Local Interest among cultivated fields, vegetable gardens and small livestock farms, until it reaches one of the symbolic places of the whole Lunigiana, the Pieve of Sorano.
After a short stop to admire the elegance of the Romanesque architecture and the two prehistoric Stele Statues preserved inside the church, go up the hill to reach the historic centre of Filattiera, the ancient capital of the Spino Fiorito family.
After having skirted the walls of the MalaspinaCastle in Filattiera, take the last of the three alleys that give shape to the village of Filattiera (Borgo di Co’), where we come across the traces of an ancient hospital dedicated to Saint Giacomo d’Altopascio: an ancient stone cross and a marble bas-relief representing the Saint in pilgrim clothes.
Before leaving Filattiera, another stop is a must to admire what remains of the ancient castle of Saint George: a mighty quadrangular tower and a church , which preserves inside the most important Longobard inscription of the whole Lunigiana, the famous “Epigraph of Leodegar ” (VIII century).
But the surprises arenot over yet! In fact, continuing for a few hundred metres you come across the fourteenth-century oratory of Pizzo Mogano immersed in the woods: we know very little about this church, but inside you can still admire an amazing fifteenth-century fresco depicting the Annunciation.
From the oratory a wooded section with ups and downs begins, which in about an hour leads to the Selva and the medieval village of Filetto.
(Text by Lunigiana World and Sigeric – Tourism Services)
(Text by Lunigiana World and Sigeric – Tourism Services)