Edited by Associazione Ca’ Nostra Lustrola // © photo Stefano Semenzato
LUSTROLA MILLENNIUM
A parchment, one community: 1000 years of Lustrola
It’s the 18th of March 1021.
Guinezo, Martino, Gerardo, Albrico and Ingo, inhabitants of the villages of Riolo and Lusturla, settle a dispute and promise not to ever fight over land again. They solemnly swear in the presence of notary Martino, who records the oath on parchment paper – recto and verso showed in the pictures – now preserved in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze.
It is the oldest surviving written evidence attesting the existence of Lustrola and the underlying hamlet of Riolo, now disappeared.
THE VILLAGE OF LUSTROLA
Located in the Alto Reno Terme municipality, in the heart of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennine, 750 a.s.l., Lustrola is an ancient village whose first written record dates back to year 1021. Its medieval character and charm are intact: Narrow cobbled streets unwind among old stone houses, with stone steps or solidly jointed to one another, encircling around the town’s church. Here important historic testimonies coexist – even language, less Bolognese than Tuscan, affirms a historic relation to Pistoia, prevailing in comparison to Bologna, and witnesses the belonging to a territory long-lasting disputed between both the municipalities, in a mountain area crucial to ancient communication routes, linking the Padana Plain and the depth of Italy.
A village nestled in the woods, where the old anthropic settlement merges with the exceptional and pure beauty of the natural landscape. On the millennial anniversary, this picturesque location can rightfully symbolize a project for the future of these mountains.
1000 YEARS OF LUSTROLA
The manifold initiatives planned for the millennial celebrations, in August 2021 – guided tours, hiking, exhibitions, seminaries, cultural and culinary occasions, preparatory actions over the area, ancient paths restoration works, road maintenance in the village and major renovations in the parish church – represent a tourist attraction for Lustrola and Alto Reno Terme as well as an occasion to draw focus of a broader public upon the opportunities of the mountain life between Bologna and Pistoia.
