Pracchiola, part of the municipality of Pontremoli, is m. 672 meters above sea level, on the left of the Magra River, just above the place where this joined the waters of the Rio Boalenza , which descends from Mount Orsaro (d. 1831). Country characteristic rural architecture [1] , binds its history to the ancient road from Pontremoli, along the Arzengio - Toplecca Superior - Casalina - Groppodalosio - Pracchiola - Step Cirone of, connected with the Tuscany " Lombardia", ie the Po Valley.
Along the same street, just below the pass, to m. 984 meters above sea level, was a xenodochio, run by the Monks of Alton, in the area known today as " Ospedaletto " (" Sdalét " in local dialect), located in the ancient documents as "Hospital de Piellaburga " or " de Pitaborga " or "de Mallaticchia . Of this ancient structure still remains today very few, much altered over the centuries, testifying to the existence of a place of shelter place after the Scaleri (ie characterized by a steep climb steps to facilitate the rise of men and pack animals) and under Magresi (ie the source of the Magra) in a plain small, before the road climbs to the pass with a steep climb in the final stretch.
now reduced to a few dozen inhabitants [2] , following a massive flow of migrants, who led most of those who lived in seek better living conditions especially in the United States of America, country's population exceeded in the past, even the two hundred inhabitants (there were, according to Repetti [3] , 223 in 1833). The economy until very recent years has been based on subsistence agriculture (grazing, cultivation of chestnut and cereals or potatoes) and - as long as the path of Cirone has played a quite important part of economic between Emilia and Tuscany High - on activities related to the movement of people and goods along the road above.
the viability of these links may be indirect evidence as well as some place names, such as the numerous " caves Sarasin " or the names of some places that recall likely as barbaric settlements Borgognone and Marmagna , two peaks of which occupies the Pracchiola buttresses and whose names Pier Maria Conti goes back to the fallen and the subsequent establishment of Burgundioni and Marcomanni [4] .
further evidence of the indirect relationship with the road we drawn from the folk tradition, full of memories, confused, but indicative, of mourning, raids and disastrous epidemics caused by repeated passages of foreign troops, always eager to empty the basements and cellars of the poor while mountain terrified, anxious to find, in such contingencies , a safe haven for themselves and their belongings [5] . But far more direct and convincing information that you are the statutes of Pontremoli [6] with their prescriptions often related directly to both Via di Bosco or della Scala.
[1] So describes it, in 1966, John Bortolotti " is a typical old village, clinging to the mountains, built around a dirt road sottopassante houses with arches, from which branch off close Vivoli, hill houses with roofs of slate, almost buried amid the thick chestnut. The exposure of the country is not very happy, closed in the mountains, and a possible development that may not occur on the nearby ridge, NE, better exposed and broader view on Magra Valley " ( G. Bortolotti, Guide Apennine Parma and Lunigianese from the Cisa Pass Lagastrello , Bologna, 1966).
[2] On October 21, 2001, on the occasion of the 14th census, Pracchiola were counted 27 people, 14 males and 13 females, divided into 16 families . The buildings surveyed were 55 and housing 44. ( ISTAT, Resident population and dwellings in the Italian provinces. 14th General Census of Population and Housing - Massa Carrara , Rome, 2005)
[3] E. Repetti, Dictionary Physical Geography of Tuscany, Florence, 1841 (Vol IV)
[4] PM Conti, Luni Upper Middle Evo , Padova, 1967, pp. 59-60
[5] The old Pracchiola handed down, with a sense of secret fear, the passage of poorly identified Alemán, who had ransacked the country and different requirement of cattle. Traditions are very vague, but a lived reality and respect felt by those people.
[6] Statutes Pontremoli, Parma, 1571.
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