Aulla

Sister cities

• Villerupt

History

Traces of Roman and Etruscan civilizations found in the church of the Abbey of San Caprasio indicate that there were settlements in Aulla long before the 8th century CE, when margrave Adalbert I of Tuscany founded a village and built a castle to accommodate pilgrims traveling the via Francigena. Here, at Aguilla Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, sojourned on his return journey from Rome about 990. The Malaspina family wrested feudal power of the city and its contada from the domination of the bishops and dukes of Luni. In 1543 the Centurione family purchased it. They built the , which was bought in the early 20th century by Aubrey and Lina Waterfield, and remains privately owned, functioning as a museum of natural history for the Lunigiana region. Prominent among the buildings of the town is the Abbey of San Caprasio that was founded in the 9th century and named after Saint Caprasius of Lérins, whose body was transferred to Aulla in the 10th century. In 1943, the historic center of Aulla was destroyed by Anglo-American bombings. Aimed at German troops stationed there during the Second World War, the bombings sought to destroy the town's key railroad network and gunpowder manufacturing plant. A replica of an unexploded bomb is preserved in the former abbey of San Caprasio, which is now a museum. In April 1945 the 442nd Infantry Regiment (United States), aided by a significantly strong Italian partisan fighting force, liberated the city of Aulla, after fierce battles with retreating German troops. On 8 April 2020, a 260 metre long road bridge at Albiano Magra near Aulla collapsed into the River Magra. The traffic on the bridge was unusually light due to the coronavirus lockdown then in force, and the collapse resulted in only minor injuries to two casualties.