The perched village owes its name to the sparks produced by charcoal burners, a widespread activity in these areas. In ancient times this was an alpine pasture area (such as the opposite “Puntato”) until the early 1600s. The shepherds settled there definitively around 1880: first building so-called “alla buona” houses and then gradually making them larger and solid using local stone for the walls and schist for the roofs. The whole village life took place around the church of Sant’Anna (dating back to 1640) which welcomed into its arms new people captured by the convenient sale that settled up there, in a strategic position between the Garfagnana and Versilia with numerous paths that allowed achieve it. Permanent life lasted there until the 1960s thanks also to the commitment of the last parish priest (Don Cosimo, to whom a plaque on the facade of the church is dedicated) around which the remaining community was cemented, in the process of being displaced.
An unfortunate episode occurred in 1977 when the whole country was devastated by episodes of paramilitary simulations. Since then, however, the heir community of Col di Favilla has become even more united, albeit displaced in different places further down the valley, and usually recompose with the heirs every year for July 26 to celebrate the day of the patron Saint Anna.
