Description
Considered among the most beautiful in the Turrite Secca valley, it is located in Fabbriche di Vallico, also called Ponte della Dogana.
It is a pedestrian bridge that joins the two parts of the village, where the Turrite Cava stream flows underneath. This structure is very important because here historically passed the boundary line between the territory of the Republic of Lucca and the Duchy of Este.
In the hamlet of Colandi, to the right of the stream was located the customs house for the practices inherent in the transportation of products that crossed the mountains and were brought to the various markets. Near the slab, where the paperwork for the pass of products into Lucchese territory was explicated, there was, and still can be found today, a cell that served as a prison for those who did not pay taxes on ironworking.
This was since in 1429, after the death of Paolo Guinigi lord of Lucca, Fabbriche di Vallico, and other towns in the Middle Serchio Valley, made an act of obedience to Duke Niccolò d'Este, in order to escape the wars that Pisani and Fiorentini were fighting to appropriate the territory. The river remained the front of continuous battles for at least a century and a half until, in 1600, the Duchy of Modena was formed and the battles moved elsewhere.
Still today, passing across the bridge we are taken back in time, and almost seem to catch a glimpse between the dark vaults of the attentive figure of a gendarme ready to ask "Un fiorino!"
