L’antica città di luna

At the beginning of the 2nd century B.C., the Romans began to frequent the area where the city would later be founded in order to use the port as a bridgehead for the conquest of Spain.

After repeated clashes and the deportation to Sannio of the Liguri Apuanians living in the region, in A ciascuno la sua colonia B.C. two thousand Roman citizens participated in the foundation of the colony of Luna sponsored by the triumvirs M. Aemilius Lepidus, P. Aelius Tuberon and Gn. Sicinio; each settler is assigned 13 hectares in an area roughly between the river Magra and the present-day municipality of Pietrasanta.

Despite the stable presence of the Romans, hostilities with the Liguri Apuani did not cease, and it was not until 155 B.C. that they were finally defeated by Consul M. Claudius Marcellus. In perpetual memory of his triumph, a commemorative monument with a statue of the victorious general is erected in the capital area of the colony.

THE CITY IN THE REPUBLICAN AGE

The defensive walls and the urban layout based on a network of streets perpendicular to each other that define rectangular blocks (decumanus oriented in an east-west direction and cardo arranged in a north-south direction) can be attributed to the colony's early phases. At the same time, public and private buildings are constructed, often later renovated or totally obliterated.

In particular, important places of worship were erected, such as the Temple of the goddess Luna, with its terracotta pediments inspired by sculpture from Rhodes and Pergamum, and the Capitolium, which, in the late 2nd or early 1st century B.C., was refurbished with an adaptation to Hellenistic models.

THE IMPERIAL PHASE

After 42 B.C. Octavian makes a new land allocation to his veterans in Luna, which is evidenced by the agrarian division that replaces the previous one.
In the first decades of the 1st century A.D., during the period when power in Rome was in the hands of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the great monuments of the city centre were built, replacing most of the older structures.

On its sides are other monumental complexes that find their place, while uncovered passages connect with two squares and finally with the Cardo Maximus.
On the eastern side of the Forum an entire block, privately owned, is demolished for the creation of a grandiose temple set in the frame of a portico with access from the Decumanus Maximus (this is the so-called Temple of Diana).
Next to the Capitolium, the eastern wing of the triporticus is occupied by the Civil Basilica; a covered theatre is built in the north-eastern corner of the walls.

The porticoes of the Forum and the Tabernae on the western side; at the same time, the southern side of the large square is redesigned: in axis with the Capitolium a large building is constructed that can hypothetically be identified with the Curia, seat of the city council meetings.  

In the early Imperial Age, the city took on a sumptuous and refined appearance of which only few recognisable traces remain today: porticoes line the streets paved with large cobblestones, public spaces are paved with slabs of precious marble, and fountains and gardens enliven monuments and private residences.

Imposing marble statues of emperors and members of their families crowd the arcades and dedicated places. The climate of general prosperity continued in the following centuries, in the Age of the Antonines and Severans (2nd and 3rd century A.D.).

FROM THE END OF THE 4TH CENTURY TO ABANDONMENT

In the 4th century, Luna also suffered from the general crisis common to the rest of the empire, aggravated by the severe damage caused by a disastrous earthquake, attested only by archaeological research but not by written sources.

Modern agricultural activities have partly undermined the settlement rebuilt after the earthquake, destroying the most superficial levels of the deposit.
Some urban areas were redeveloped with interventions, some of which were quite extensive, such as those recognisable in the Domus of Mosaics, the northern wing of the Forum and the Civil Basilica, often realised by reusing architectural and furnishing materials from destroyed buildings.
Profound transformations were also recorded in the south-western sector of the city where, above the Oceanus Domus, the Christian Basilica was built in the second half of the 5th century, linked to the presence of a community so numerous that Luni became a bishopric. 

In 552, after the military occupation by General Narses, Luna was the centre of the Byzantine province Maritima Italorum and its church was totally renovated.
According to historical tradition, in 643 the Lumbard king Rotari destroyed the walls of Luni and devastated the city. However, during the Lumbard domination, the bishops of Luni enjoyed a good amount of political and administrative autonomy.
The devotional chronicle narrates that in 782, the wooden crucifix carved by Nicodemus of Arimathea, known as the Holy Face, arrived in Luni, which also held the ampoule of the Blood of Christ. This relic was placed in the cathedral of Luni named after Saint Mary, which underwent extensive renovation in the Carolingian Age and was equipped with the first semi-annular crypt and indeed the chamber of the reliquaries.

In 845, the city became part of the march of Tuscia under the control of the Adalberti family; the testimony of Prudentius, Bishop of Troyes, reports that Mauri et Sarraceni devastated the coast from Luni to Provence during the raid of 849, without encountering resistance.
In 860, it was in the cathedral that the highlights of the story of Hasting, a Danish pirate who, having pretended to be dead, had “risen” from his coffin during the funeral ceremony held in the church, then plundered the city, mistaken for Rome.

With the coronation of Berengar II as King of Italy in 966, Luni was a maritime city of the Obertenga March, equipped with a fleet to defend against Muslim attacks. Nevertheless, in the year 1015, there was an incursion by pirates from Mugiahid's fleet who forced the bishop to flee.

At the end of the 11th century, as recorded in the Pelavicino Codex, Luna is placed under the protection of Frederick Barbarossa and his son Henry VI, while the bishops are granted the right to charge a toll at the port.

Monetary finds confirm the commercial vitality and trade as evidence of a still productive settlement, but the swamping of the portus Lunae and the consequent malaria caused the gradual abandonment of the sandy plain, leading to the transfer of the bishopric to Sarzana in 1204.

Nevertheless, the spiritual and ideal bond with Luni's cathedral endures: even throughout the 13th century, bishops returned to Luni for solemn feudal and religious ceremonies.

Dante, who stayed in Sarzana in 1306 on behalf of the Malaspina family, mentions Luni among the “dead” towns.

After the abandonment of the city, the process of its partial destruction began, and it became a place of supply of building materials and valuable objects for private collections, including that of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

 From the 16th century onwards, the centre, by then the property of the Sarzanese nobility and the Lunigiana clergy, was the object of attention of cartographers who documented the emerging ruins at various levels; exemplary in this respect is the documentation compiled by Matteo and Panfilo Vinzoni in the 18th century for the Serenissima Republic of Genoa.

Systematic archaeological research did not begin until the 19th century. Among the first is the one conducted by Marquis Angelo Remedi in 1837 in the western wing of the portico of what, only much later, has been identified as the Capitolium. The excavation continued under the direction of Carlo Promis, with funding from King Carlo Alberto, and led to the discovery of marble statues and various artefacts that found their way into the collections of the Royal Museums of Turin. Remedi himself in 1842 explored part of what would be recognised as the Temple of the goddess Luna, bringing to light, in particular, an exceptional group of terracotta figures; his collection was sold to the Archaeological Museum of Florence in 1882.

In the last decades of the century, Marquis Giacomo Gropallo repeatedly carried out research in the area of St. Mary's Cathedral.

In the late 20th century, Carlo Fabbricotti, a marble industrialist, conducted explorations both inside the city and outside the walls, clearing the amphitheatre of rubble. In the course of his excavations, he set up a remarkable collection in the Villa del Colombarotto in Carrara - which also included the Gropallo findings - that his son Carlo Andrea handed over to a consortium of municipalities in the province of La Spezia in 1939. These materials form the core of the collections currently on display at the “Ubaldo Formentini” Municipal Museum in La Spezia's San Giorgio Castle.

It was only with the Protection Law no. 364 of 1909 that the indiscriminate recoveries that fed the various private collections ceased. Archaeological investigations in Luni restarted in the years immediately after World War II and led to discoveries of considerable importance. In the meantime, the need arose to create a place to display the exhibits on site, and in 1951 the Antiquarium of Luni set up in the Benettini Gropallo Buildings, located near the western gate of the ancient town.

In 1964, the National Archaeological Museum of Luni was inaugurated, housing materials found both during 19th century excavations and as a result of excavation campaigns conducted since the 1960s by the Archaeological Superintendency of Liguria. 

Since 1967, the acquisition of land and buildings in the area of the ancient town and the area immediately outside it has been progressively conducted, and is still in progress, for the creation of the Museum and Archaeological Area of Luni which has transformed privately owned agricultural areas and rustic buildings into appurtenances for public use. The primary objective behind the interventions carried out over the last forty years has in fact been to musealise the site in order to restore the city's image.