Forest paths allow the connection of Antona with Canevara, Pian della Fioba and San Marcora. It is also possible to walk the “via della Libertà”, full of memories of the partisan struggles. From the center of Antona you can quickly reach Pian della Fioba, where the Pietro Pellegrini botanical garden of the University of Pisa is located, where there are floral specimens of the Apuan Alps. Further on, after passing the tunnel at the Tecchia, a route begins that leads to the Python pass, used by the partisan forces to overcome the Gothic Line. From the route you can admire the Apuane ridge with the Sagro, Contrario, Tambura, Sumbra and Altissimo mountains, and the southern ridge, with Mount Folgorito, along which the first western stretch of the Gothic Line winded down to Lake Porta.
The toponym probably descends from Antognano, a name present in a document dating back to 988 and with which indicated land belonging to the bishop of Lucca. Independent municipality during the Middle Ages, it saw in the territory the development of economic activities related to the land and the extraction of iron, and the processing of wool and cloths, which was followed in the sixteenth century by the development of the hat industry and those related to the treatment of leather and wood. The church of San Geminiano (whose presence has been ascertained since 1297) was the cornerstone around which the town grew, which in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was defended by a circle of walls that granted access through two doors, Soprana and Sottana , with circular turrets to protect. During the seventeenth century, Antona became the holiday place of the Malaspina family, who embellished it by installing a fountain with a large basin in the center of the village, which is still present in Piazza San Rocco.
During the period of resistance against Nazifascism, Antona was a center of partisan actions and gave protection to thousands of those who escaped political persecution, and for this reason it suffered reprisals and devastation. A plaque placed at the “La Tecchia” Shrine commemorates the partisans who fell in Antona, including the gold medals for military valor Arnaldo Pegollo, Mario Paolini, Andrea Marchini, Aldo Salvetti and Marcello Garosi (Tito)
Monuments and places of interest
Church of San Geminiano
The church of San Geminiano stands on a rocky rise overlooking the town. Originally it consisted of a nave, to which the two lateral aisles were added in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, giving the building the appearance of Tuscan Romanesque architecture of the time. In the same period the nearby tower which served as a sighting observatory was renovated as a bell tower [9]. Access to the church is via a marble portal by the local sculptor Felice Palma [5]. Di Ippolito Ghirlanda is the fresco of San Geminiano visible in the lunette that surmounts the entrance portal. The simplicity of the squat columns and capitals counterbalances the rich furnishings of the church: an altar in glazed terracotta, the work of Benedetto Buglioni, in which the Virgin and Child and the four saints are represented; a sixteenth-century marble balustrade, a marble altar dating back to 1711 and named after the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary, another altar dedicated to San Gennaro, partly frescoed in 1606 by Francesco Martelli, a seventeenth-century baptismal font bearing the coat of arms of the Cybo Malaspina and another coat of arms with agro-pastoral images, probably the sign of Antona from the Medieval period
Piccianti house
It is a four-storey building built in the fifteenth-sixteenth century and which was created as a stately home, as can also be seen from the interiors preserved in their original form. The presence of wood in the floors, ceilings and furnishings abounds; there is a large kitchen and cellars. The house played different roles according to the periods crossed: noble house, milk shop, canteen in the war years, today a social club that occupies the ground floor. A huge screw crusher once used for oil production is also visible. The house is softened by a garden where roses and aromatic herbs are found, and which offers a splendid view that sweeps up to the coast and the Tyrrhenian Sea
Culture: May and the chestnut harvest have long belonged to the popular tradition of Antona.
The Maggio was a theatrical show in which the inhabitants of the village, dressed in costumes created by themselves, exhibited narrating stories in verse. The Maggianti were divided into companies, and moved from one country to another to perform their improvised recitations. The ritual is intended to celebrate the return of spring and is therefore linked to the agrarian roots of Antona’s culture, and has continued with some interruptions; for some years the young people of the villages have organized themselves to go around in a procession to the sound of violins and accordions.
Even the chestnut harvest was a collective ritual in which the inhabitants of Antona shared all the fruits collected which were then dried for a period of forty days, during which an always lit fire was in turn kept under control and then proceeded the elimination of the peel by beating the chestnuts collected in sacks that were beaten; finally the fruits were divided in proportion to the entitlements of each family and brought to the mill, so as to obtain fine flour [5]. This event was absorbed by the Sagra del Neccio, which takes place in August, and in which chestnuts and chestnut cakes are baked for three days, and a pan of about two meters in diameter receives the exquisite chestnut flour which is fried by obtaining pancakes ; foods accompanied by ricotta, cured meats and other local gastronomic specialties, tasted together with wine produced in the area. The food is joined by dancing and singing, in a party that is a great success.
(taken from Wikipedia)
