Popiglio Towers - Rocca Securana

Popiglio rises in the heart the Pistoiese Mountain along the road SS12 of the Abetone and the Brennero. From Pistoia it is reachable following the SS66 until S.Marcello Pistoiese, then La Lima and following the indications towards Lucca. After a kilometer our right will find the signal for the little road that guide us up to the the 'Torri'. From Lucca we follow the SS12 and passed the country of Popiglio we continue until finding on the left the aforesaid crossroad (not very marked from this direction).

NB: Photos before restoration.

 

This zone of the Pistoiese Mountain, the high valley of the Lima river, belonged to the counts Guidi of Modigliana who possessed the castles of Popiglio and Piteglio, as it emerges from the imperial diplomas of Arrigo VI° of the year 1191 and Frederick II°; of the years 1220 and 1247. Later the area was subjected to the power of the nearby town of Pistoia and the two castles had the same 'Podestà'.

The northern side of the valley is dominated by Popiglio. The 'castrum de Popilio' is noted since the high Middle Age, even if the only certain notice is those relative to its ownership by the counts Guidi. As said the castle was dominated from the Pistoiesi and then became part of the territories of the Florentine Republic.

In the village of Popiglio there are no more traces of the ancient fortifications and of the town-walls that enclosed it, while on the vertex of the mountain overlooking it there still rise two powerful towers. The 'Torri di Popiglio' (Popiglio Watchtowers) both have square shapes and rise to different levels at short distance one from the other: the most elevated to the vertex, the other about twenty meters below.

The first tower, partially collapsed, rises today for approximately half of its original height and very scarce remains of the elliptically shaped walls that encircled it can still be found. Probably inside of this curtain rose other buildings, as we can imagine from the remains of a collapsed construction on the north east side, and this was surely the seat of the commander of the entire defensive system.

The other tower did not have additional fortifications and probably acted as an intermediate connection between the country and the main point of the defensive system, with its remanants today higher than those of its 'twin'. From this position we can admire an unique landscape on the Apennine Mountain and dominate the entire underlying valley.

Torri di Popiglio, after the restoration, from the drone: