The Matildic Way - Holy Face

From Mantua, a World Heritage city, begins the Via Matildica del Volto Santo, a route that winds through the Po Valley's landscapes. It finally reaches San Benedetto and the splendid Polirone Abbey. This 284-kilometer route passes through three Italian regions linked to the historical figure of Matilda of Canossa.

Countess Matilda promised to build 99 hospitals to shelter pilgrims. One hundred is the number of pride, and her faith would not allow it.

Undoubtedly an architect of great innovations, with a strong and determined character, tradition, more forcefully than history, attributes to her the founding of hermitages and churches, roads, bridges, and castles wherever her power was expressed. The Tuscan route of the Via Matildica del Volto Santo is certainly a prime example.

The path descends into Tuscany from San Pellegrino in Alpe, to this small Apennine village, 1525 meters above sea level, among the beech forests and pastures of Garfagnana, a land rich in history and an integral part of the lands of Matilda of Canossa. The name is linked to Saint Pellegrino, son of the King of Scotland, who renounced the throne for the life of a pilgrim. Upon his death in 643, Saint Bianco continued his work of welcoming pilgrims, and a few centuries later, the construction of the hospital is attributed to her, Matilda of Canossa.

Going down the valley, in the Cathedral of Barga, some would like to glimpse the faces of the Grand Countess and her parents Beatrice and Boniface in the figures with long braids that frame the iconostasis.

In Borgo a Mozzano, another icon of the valley landscape, the famous Devil's bridge on the Serchio River, it was built by Matilda, according to popular tradition, who was concerned that pilgrims could better reach Bagni di Lucca to refresh themselves in the thermal waters.
Walking among the olive trees on the valley floor, you reach the Pieve Matildica di Diecimo and from here you can climb the Aquilea hill or, on the opposite side, the Brancoleria reliefs.

Here the passage of paths of faith is witnessed by the presence of many parish churches, with fantastic representations of a brilliant and cultured Middle Ages, which we cannot imagine. In the parish church of San Giorgio in Brancoli, one of the most beautiful for its architecture, furnishings and landscapes, popular tradition still wants to glimpse in a figure on the historiated pulpit, a portrait of the Grand Countess.

However, we reach Lucca where, inside the cathedral, the journey ends in the presence of the Holy FaceBefore entering, on the frame of the northern arch leading to the portico, tradition places a portrait of Matilda, paired, on the other side of the arch, with that of Bishop Anselmo, her friend and confidant.

Not far from the city, also the Nozzano Castle, The castle, which stands on a border that was much contested in Matilda's time, between Lucca and Pisa, is attributed to the Countess's will. In her honor, every year at the end of summer, the castle leaps back in time and comes alive with soldiers and jesters, artists and musicians, while the aroma of hippocras and other medieval delicacies wafts through the air.