Forte dei Marmi

A JEWEL BETWEEN THE PEAKS AND THE SEA

The little town of Forte dei Marmi is located on the northern coast of the province of Lucca, on the border with the province of Massa Carrara and is part of the Versilia, together with the towns of Seravezza, Stazzema and Pietrasanta. The name Versilia comes from the homonym river which marks in part the border of the territories of Forte dei Marmi, Seravezza and Pietrasanta, before reaching the outlet entirely on the territory of Massa Carrara. The town is characterized by an extended green area, mainly pine-woods and holm oaks, an ancient tree typical of this zone. The protection of natural areas is efficiently guaranteed by a very scrupulous town administration: construction rules have become more strict in the last few years and this has helped to maintain its charm and exclusivity.

The beach of Forte dei Marmi is entirely composed by very fine sand and it stretches for about 150 meters. The sea is clear and transparent even far from the shore when there are favorable water currents, and since its depth is no more than 4 meters up to more than 500 meters away from the shore, a pleasant and safe bathing for children is guaranteed. 300 meters far from the shoreline there is also a romantic wharf from which in the past big blocks of marble were embarked and sent all over the world; today the wharf is a tourist destination and also a temporary docking point of a local boat that connects Forte dei Marmi with the Cinque Terre.
The extreme closeness to the Apuane Alps makes this town of Versilia one of the most characteristic places in Italy: the Apuan peaks reach 1858 meters in height and are less than twenty kilometers away from the coast. These particular features have always given to Forte dei Marmi a breathtaking landscape and fairy-tale views, 


they make this town center a real paradise for relax and peacefulness, an exclusive and luxury place, just a few kilometers away from the most beautiful resorts of Tuscany.
Lately Forte dei Marmi has become a summer holiday meeting point for a large number of the national and international financial world, sports champions and show biz characters. The tenor Andrea Bocelli and the tennis players Adriano Panatta and Paolo Bertolucci live here.

The symbol of Forte dei Marmi is the Marbles Fort and is located in the center of the city, the Grand Duke's fortress was built at the end of the eighteenth century and nowadays is surrounded by a modern urban setting where a grid of tree-lined streets gives the town a relaxing and worldly appearance.

HISTORY

The Romans settled in Versilia after Marco Bebio Tanfilo and Publio Cornelio Cetego had submitted the Ligurians.

The territory was divided into local districts for the allocation of the land between the colonists coming from Luni and Lucca and the mines of iron and silver were exploited.

Among Querceta (Seravezza) and the town of Vaiana, corresponding to the present territory of Forte dei Marmi, extended the road later called “delle Mordure”, which was one of the axis of the Roman centuriation.

The town Vaiana is mentioned in a document of the year 794, which regarded land sales located on the spot here dicitur Vaiano, where later on seemed to be witnessed springwaters which contributed to the swamping of the area.

In 1515 the marble quarries falling in the territory of Versilia were donated to the Medici: new quarries were opened and was built also a road designed to bring the blocks to the sea, where it was built a wharf for loading ships.

Towards the middle of the century the Medici decided to divert the Versilia river, in order to protect Pietrasanta from its overflows: it was created a new track with the waterway Fosso Scaricatore which had to divert the floods in the Lago di Porta swamps, cutting the territories of Querceta and Vaiana.

At about 1.500 meters from the shoreline the new waterway cut the road wanted by Michelangelo and was built a new bridge, probably made out of wood, named Ponte di Tavole. Over time, other channels were dug as the reclamation of the land was carried out, while the road was arranged on several occasions for the transport of marble.

In the seventeenth century the first real settlement was established on the shore: the town of Caranna, not so far away from Polle di Vaiana, was the origin of the town.

Later on, other settlements were built in the area corresponding to the present town center. In the very beginning the area was named Magazzino del ferro or Magazzino della Magona and afterwards Magazzino dei marmi, the only building facing the sea and close to a scrub of live oaks, by the way the entire area was also known as Marina: the B road that connects Querceta with the sea and currently known as Provinciale di Marina.
In 1788 the Grand Duke of Tuscany Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine ordered the construction of a fort (the Lorraine Fort) similar to the ones which were built in Marina di Bibbona and Marina di Castagneto in the area of Maremma, which was meant to protect the shipping of the marble and to promote settlement in the territory.

When the fort was finished (on February, 6th, 1788) its function was to protect the coast and the inland from the raids of the Corsicans (it was built on the side of the already existing Magazzino della Magona) but began to be used as a shelter for the marble coming from the Apuan Alps before being boarded on the ships: therefore the area began to be called Forte dei Marmi.

In 1833 the Grand Dukes decided to rebuild the wooden bridge and the engineer Giovanni Franchi was entrusted with this task, the bridge was later rebuilt with stones after the Nazi destruction in 1944.

In the meantime the town had always been under the administration of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, at first as a part of the Captaincy of Versilia in Pietrasanta (1438), and after the unification of Italy as administrative division of that municipality. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the tourism development of Forte dei Marmi led to the foundation of a local committee that asked for: its independence from Pietrasanta to be part of the municipality of Seravezza, or to be independent. Thanks to the Florentine politician Giovanni Montauti, on April, 26th , 1914, Forte dei Marmi became legally independent.
(source Wikipedia.org)