Cassana: castellaro, church and caves
Cassana's territory, on which are spread among eight villages, named after the homonymous river, which flows from Mount Bardellone, a few meters below the pass and winds in a valley deep and green, to its confluence with the Rio Redarena which then flows into the Vara.
On top of a mountain in the middle of the ancient path Levanto / Borghetto Vara which we have already spoken, is the core of the country, consisting of Corneto fractions, The Meadow, The Street and Church. This last fraction arouses our interest, because if the village have developed only in the tenth century, the Church has a more ancient origin, can be placed in the last phase of Roman (III / V century).
The present parish church of San Michele, which gives its name to the locality, in fact, was built in the sixteenth century on the basis of an earlier Romanesque building defensive. What is now the bell tower was once the quadrangular tower of the fortification walls and the imposing walls of the ancient church were likely to defend a military settlement relatively stable.
In fact, the position of the fortress is relevant to a military control of territory and the road network, because it is dominating the main road from the sea to the mountains above, in addition to the mule of the surrounding valleys, including the director of EO, from the Gulf of La Spezia to Genoa.
However, the castrum Romania is not the first settlement in the area. In the north-west of the village of Corneto, in fact, is the mountain Castellaro along a mule track that leads to the mouth of Bardellone. The name "Castellaro, as noted earlier, is almost always synonymous with a prehistoric settlement fort, whose remains were actually found on this summit.
They are major terraced stone walls, similar to those found in many other sites of the same type. This prehistoric castellaro controlled, most likely, the old path near which rises, as it did the Roman forts at different times.
Human settlement in this valley is certainly very ancient, intricate system of karst formations that characterize the valley, some scholars have suggested, so far without evidence, attendance of a 'homo neanderthalensis .
Just close the mouth of one of these cavities, called "Resciadora" (vent), located on the side of the road to Pignone, could be linked to an ancient nature worship. This anomalous
karst phenomenon occurs, in fact, like a narrow tunnel with two openings: one posed above, in the undergrowth, is a dangerous sinkhole about three feet in diameter, while those at street level is a singular rock crevice from which According to legend, a cold wind blows in summer and in winter, water flows clear and cold. The cold wind would come even from the sea, pulling in coastal opening, it would be channeled to flow from karst caves in Cassana.
Indeed, a quick inspection, one realizes how the law is, again, closer to reality. The air breather incessant blows, in fact, is very cold even in August and the trickle of pure water that flows appear to increase the flow in the rainy seasons. The Resciadora also is part of the underground cave Ossifera, where natural cavities in 1824, Professor Paul Elders of Pisa unearthed large quantities of bones of various animal species.
On this site many legends that haunt the house you see evil and devils, instead of those evil processions of light that are so frequent in the oral tradition of Liguria.
In fact, it is possible to envisage attending a sacred site just starting with these little legends.
Fairies and devils, in fact, as beings of 'another world , are in close contact with the dead and their function in the traditional fable, it is precisely that of intermediaries between two worlds. In addition, the procession of lights which was mentioned first is a demonstration that the dead, in fact, put in place in the realm of the living. In all the stories that bring these processions, also called "Menada", they are always in close contact with the afterlife. Participants in this blasphemous rituals are often described as ghosts, dead, dead men's bones, flames (ie wisps), or witches. The witches in European popular culture, they are surely the remnant of an ancient imagery, which refers to characters powers with "magic" type of shamanic and, therefore, also related to the world of the dead (1).
The fact that the legends around the flowering Resciadora, then, are all centered on mythical figures who have always something to do with the world of the dead, can only suggest the possibility that this place so charming, that joins two Leitmotive sacredness of prehistoric cave and the spring, had somehow to do with funeral practices. The cave, in fact, is the significant burial place of choice for ancient Ligurian people, as we show, for example, the burial sites of the Balzi Rossi (IM), Arene Candide (SV), Equi Terme (MS) and so on.
This could also justify the obvious intent of the legends exhortation not to get too close to a populated place to be evil and supernatural, as the unconscious memory of a site may be important for the pagan religion, considered "wicked" and therefore forbidden to Christians .
This is just a guess, sure, but maybe not so far from reality. The clues are there.
Also, do not forget that the name "Cassana", as mentioned above, probably derives from the Celtic word cassanus , pointing to the oak tree sacred to the Celtic / Liguria and, perhaps, this valley was located in a forest consecrated, so the generic term would be become, little by little, a place name.
Notes:
(1) Carlo Ginzburg, History night, Torino, Einaudi, 1995
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| Trail Bardellone-Cassana: medieval bridge |
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| Cassana, inside the cave Resciadora |
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