Calice al Cornoviglio - Italy

Calice al Cornoviglio (SP)

Liguria (Italy)

Calice, perched on a hill with a view of Mount Cornoviglio (1162 m.), is a medieval town dominated by the castle.
In the thirteenth century the Fieschi took over the fief by the Bishop of Luni.
In 1547 it passed to the Doria, and then to the Malaspina, who also owned the nearby castle of stepmother.
The two manors were sold in 1772 to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was still in the nineteenth century Madrignano bulwark border with the Kingdom of Sardinia.
The road to Calice goes into the woods leaving the Madrignano detour to the right before reaching the village at 600 meters high.
One has the impression of a jump in the past, for the centrality of the castle in the wooded environment.
Tombs on the box, found in the area date from the Bronze Age.
Many folk traditions, lives up to the last century, make reference to pre-Christian magical atmosphere, as the feast of Bolseda donkey, or the feast of Saint Sebastian the patron from the influence of witches, or propitiatory rites of carnival for fertility.
Home Maghelli is the former home of an alchemist, in the process of restoration.
The magical atmosphere was perhaps inspired Umberto Bonini, eclectic artist who for over thirty years working at the only museum in the Galaxy, a collection of works of art outdoor Valdonica.
In the castle of Calice is instead housed the art gallery of David Beghé, painter born in Calice in 1854, and a museum of natural history.
The church of Santa Maria is the seventeenth century, the oratory with the stone gateway is the next century.
Around the Great Mount, the Via dei Mulini and the way of bell towers are ancient mule tracks.
The Alta Via dei Monti Ligurian makes a stop in step dell'Alpicella, an old border crossing: Cason from mountain are visible at the edge dell'abetaia and "bandits," a forest of dwarf birches, botanical rarity in Liguria.
In Terrugiara is a forest of oaks fossilized.