Ariostesque Fortress (Rocca Ariostesca)

The fortress of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, currently referred to as the “Ariostesca” because of the office of governor of Garfagnana that Ludovico Ariosto held in this very building between 1522 and 1525, is a multi-layered building that has gone through several evolutionary phases with repeated transformations, both architectural and functional, before reaching its present-day arrangement as the seat of civic and museum institutions with a supra-municipal scope. The architectural structure develops in compact and irregular forms from an approximately trapezoidal building, which is integrated with the medieval wall enclosure along its western perimeter. To understand its formal layout, which is not easy to interpret due to the patchwork of heterogeneous building episodes sometimes extending outside the original core, it is useful to observe in plan the development of the city wall circuit, noting how the choice of the most fortified site (the Rocca) fell in an area that was not easily accessible and distant from both the Serchio and the Turrite.

The outer elevation of the Rocca, facing the present-day Via Vittorio Emanuele, presents the juxtaposition of massive fortified structures with both circular and quadrangular bases, with stone wall faces, steep escarpments and jutting structures held up by projecting stone modillions and brick arches. These mighty structures are contrasted by the narrow, airy loggia that was carved out in an elevated position above the older walkways, behind which rises the rectangular-based medieval tower with clock that dominates the complex.