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the ancient places of worship in Liguria 7

Monte Beverone, the Hall of the Val di Vara

Leaving behind the small chapel of the Olive, the trail climbs to the village of Rocchetta Vara, through which it passes to move towards Zignago. If, instead, turn right just before the country, you can take the steep trail that leads to uncomfortable Beverone.

This name designates a massive rocky height of 706 meters above sea level overlooking the Val di Vara and beyond, from Passo del Bracco to Bocca di Magra, and the small village built near it, on the north side. The village consists of twenty whitewashed stone houses, wine-colored shades of a particular hard to find elsewhere and that all have the appearance of being left exactly as he saw them in 1933, the "Wanderer", the scholar Carlo Caselli, who left "to trot 's donkey "to visit the villages of Lunigiana unknown.

In fact, at that time, the country was considered Beverone Lunigiana, so that, as the dictionary tells us Historical Physical Geography of Tuscany, in 1839 was still under the jurisdiction of Aulla.

This tiny village, seemingly devoid of historical interest, in fact hides an important past, revealed in part already in that dictionary that defines the first "Village with a castle and church" and then "castle church".

On the mountain top, in fact, where the grassy spot shrinks to make room for bare rock, stands the church of St. John the Beheaded, from the churchyard where you can enjoy one of the best views of the eastern Liguria. Beyond the low wall that borders the open space, the mountain drops steeply to the valley in a picturesque cliff strewn with sharp rocks and adorned here and there, to be brave Mediterranean shrubs. The wind blows constantly on the summit and, as evidenced by the oral memory, during the time it is targeted by numerous arrows which discharge their electric fury on rock unarmed. This finding is interesting

as it is known that natural phenomena just as special lightning, thunder, etc.. were the object of fear veneration by the ancient Ligurian and, in some areas, traces of toponymic similar cults.

In any case, a peak must have been so exceptionally popular since prehistoric times, if only for its extreme strategic importance as a "lookout." In fact, recently there was talk of a castle, although those expecting a pretty strong medieval towers and crowned with battlements will probably be disappointed.

Castle, or what's left of it, in fact, constitutes an irregular basis on which it was built, probably before the year thousand, just the church St. John's, which is publicized by the local tourism as one of the oldest in all of Liguria.

Considering this information, we can deduce that the "castle" that was mentioned was, in fact, a castrum Romans built perhaps as a lookout point in a very functional purpose. In fact, if you look well the parish church and the asymmetric shape of the profile over the squat steeple are removed immediately think of a fortress than a religious building.

to the base of the tower / tower, as reported by Caselli, it was the custom old (committed to the early years of the 900) to lay the dead, "without cash and free of all earthly things, "in two deep holes, one for men and one for women, as had been feared that the bodies could commit carnal sins.

These holes, covered in sheets of antiquity only ' slate is now walled in, certainly would provide, in the case of archaeological excavations, great clues about the history and use of the site would be a first sample for the study of funerary practice of which still little is known.

addition to reporting this disturbing tradition the Caselli informs us that he noticed, not far from the parish, "clear evidence of ancient huts, perhaps abandoned before the millennium, when the church was built, one of the most oldest in the region. "

Observing Caselli is extremely important to strengthen the hypothesis of a prehistoric settlement on the summit of Beverone and the word" castle "used in the Dictionary Repetti can only suggest also a prehistoric fort that, for strategic importance, would succeed him on the allocation castrense Romanesque, later converted into a church.

If these considerations add to the unusual practice of burial in pits at the foot of the tower / tower above a peak closely related to the phenomenon of atmospheric lightning, it is clear that we are not doing random guessing and daring. In addition, an interesting local oral tradition says that the village of Beverone was, once on the summit of the mountain, near the church. Subsequently, following a disaster, the village would slipped further downstream, stopping where we find him now.

think we can say without exaggeration that this brief is the legend "litmus test" our hypothesis and is, for the natives, an unconscious awareness of its past.

In addition to confirming our assumptions, the brief legend gives us an important clue to the summit of the settlement on grounds of abandonment. The "catastrophe" of which you speak, Indeed, perhaps linked to the frequent lightning that strike the mountain, may have wiped out the village in ancient times and, probably, have caused the population to move lower, more sheltered side of Beverone in order to avoid further disasters. After all, is what has happened, albeit in different terms, in the seventh and eighth centuries, all along the Ligurian coast: after the passage of the hordes of Rotari, the survivors of the massacre they moved slowly toward the coast, where they thought to be more New safe from barbarian invasions.

is quite plausible, then, that the summit of Mount Beverone has hosted, in prehistoric times, a settlement with castellaro (and, perhaps, cemeteries), which, several centuries after the abandonment, has been employed by the Roman army and turned into a military garrison. Following the abandonment of the site, even by Latin, the nascent Christianity would become a place of faith, exorcising what was first though, perhaps, not forsaking the burial in mass graves, probably ancient custom.

In addition, consider that Beverone located near the ancient path, descending from the Pass of Casoni, heads toward the Gulf of La Spezia and then crossing firstly Stadomelli Beverley.

This last resort seems very tied to Beverone, so that, originally, both were called by the name Beverley, who was descended from the Latin verb bibere , which usually indicates a watering place for livestock or by BEDUM / bevum , frequent hydronyms root meaning "abundance of water."

Of course the water must have been the cause of homonymy between the two settlements, because if Beverley is located in the vicinity of Vara, in a little valley full of springs, Beverone, balding on top of its mountain and rather dry, probably has never seen a real abundance of water.

may be that the two villages were linked by a common origin, being one of the other foot, perhaps as a town and religious center and / or funeral in the same community that he would, therefore, attended both. In

About Beverley, recently
Prof. Enrico Calzolari, known supporter of archaeoastronomy Ligurian and author of major discoveries in this field, studied the solar arrays of single windows at the base of early Christian chapel of St. Cyprian of Beverley, in comparison to those of the site of San Lorenzo al archaeoastronomical Caprione, unfortunately without drawing results.

The three lancet windows, oriented north / west / south, have degrees of orientation than those at San Lorenzo and frame Caprione solar azimuth different. However, though perhaps there are links between St. Cyprian and Beverone, the lancet oriented north, the only one that does not correspond to a solar azimuth, is oriented towards the mountain exactly Beverone, a difference of just over 10 " distributed over four kilometers as the crow flies.

What

San Cipriano at Beverley and Mt Beverone were somehow connected to each other? that there was some function, perhaps religious, which connects the two sites? Perhaps a study of the church archaeoastronomical St. John's Beverone answer this question. As for San Cipriano, however, further studies are impossible because of the buildings that were, in time, around the chapel, which does not allow single windows to frame the sun is not high on the horizon when it is already. Perhaps

Mount Olympus Beverone is the Val di Vara, a place "unattainable" in which ancient people placed their gods, where men strong and tenacious established their residence in an inaccessible place, often suppressed by low clouds and targeted by flashes constantly whipped by the winds. Perhaps these men were gods themselves, in a golden age in which the human race was more powerful and perhaps more inclined to happiness.