A little history - village on the banks of the taro

Borgo val di Taro (village on the banks of the Taro), more commonly known as Borgotaro, is considered the capital of the Alta Valtaro in the Apennines. The valley is traversed by the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrim route connecting Canterbury with Rome, which follows the valley from Noceto to the Passo della Cisa.

Initially the region was under the jurisdiction of the Bobbio Monastery but from medieval times onwards it was mainly ruled by powerful feudal families who disputed the land. Most of the Val di Taro was held by the Landi family and one can still visit their castle in the village of Compiano which is open to the public and houses a Masonic museum as well as a hotel and restaurant. After a failed plot, the land passed on to the Farnese family. This was followed by a famous conspiracy called the Sanvitale conspiracy, which aimed to assassinate Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, and members of his family at the baptism of his new-born son Alessandro in 1611. However, it was exposed, and the conspirators were arrested, tortured and found guilty and ten of them were publicly executed in Parma on 19 May 1612. This event was called the "great justice" and attracted a lot of attention throughout Italy and abroad, even bringing into doubt whether this was a real plot, as it enriched the Farnese family even further. To this day it is still disputed whether Ranuccio planned this on himself and at the time, it ruined his reputation.

The historical centre of Borgo val di Taro is organized in three parallel streets. The principal of these three roads is the via Nazionale along which you can observe numerous important buildings from the 16th to 18th centuries. For example at no. 21 of the via Nazionale you find Palazzo Boveri where the Queen of Spain, Elisabetta Farnese (married to Filippo V of Spain) lived for a while and the building was stuccoed for the occasion of her visit in 1714.

The church dedicated to San Domenico, has an interesting interior built in 1500 where you can appreciate an engraved gold statue of the 17th century dedicated to the Madonna del Rosario. Continuing down the via Nazionale one arrives at the piazzetta del Municipio, not far from palazzo Manara, ending in piazza XI Febbraio where one finds the 13th century Romanesque parish church of Sant'Antonino, rebuilt between 1644 and 1667 and which houses a fully functional Serassi organ dating back to 1700. On the square in front of the church there is also the only remaining tower of the ancient medieval castle that defended the town and the imposing former hospital, now Palazzo Tardiani.

The church of S. Rocco, also in the commune of Borgo Val di Taro, houses the Neapolitan artist Gaspare Traversi's Stations of the Cross (mid 1700s), while a beautiful crucifix with Saints Peter and Paul by Giovanni Lanfranco is preserved in the local parish church in Porcigatone.

The land belonging to the commune has plenty of forests of chestnut, oak and beech trees where, thanks to the climate, it is particularly apt for the proliferation of the Porcino mushroom and others. These much sought after mushrooms form the basis of the local cuisine and are extremely important for the local economy.

Walking in Borgotaro you may savour not only the calmness, the simple living, but also the importance of history, from its Roman origins to the war of Resistance in World War II. An ancient crossroads for merchants, pilgrims and travellers of the past, Borgotaro is still today one of the stops along the Via Francigena route.