Lari is a stunning Tuscan village with medieval origins located 30 km far from Pisa. Here you can visit the wonderful “Castello dei Vicari”,a castle with majestic walls that emerge from the red roofs of the other town buildings.
The first historical sources about the building date back to 732, although it’s been often rebuilt by the families that have managed it. In the Middle Ages, it belonged to the Republic of Pisa and to the Florentine Vicari family from 1406. As well as being the site of many bloody clashes, the castle became the Inquisition Tribunal headquarters in the 17th century and it contained torture rooms and prisons. It was then used as a jail until the Second World War and it’s now open to the public, who considers it an inestimable Italian artistic and historical heritage.
Since hundreds of people perished here, there are some stories about the ghosts who are believed to inhabit the hallways of the fortress.
One of these is Gostanza da Libbiano, a woman who was put on trial for witchcraft in 1594 because she treated sick people with herbs and other natural ingredients. She was accused of being linked to Satan and of killing a boy with her therapies, so she was put in jail, where she experienced tremendous acts of violence. After being left mentally and physically disabled, she was set free and confined to a three-miles distance from her house until her death in the grip of madness. Since then, people believe that her spirit returns to the prisons and that she goes through the walls with chains and rags on her body. Others claim that her desperate screams echo all along the valley.
The other ghost belongs to Giovanni Princi or “il Rosso della Paola”, a farmer who was put in jail in 1922 because of his anti-fascist political ideas. He was found hanged in his cell and although it looked like a normal suicide, he was actually killed by the guards, who beat him up and hanged him just after his death. When the jail closed down, the keeper declared that he saw the ghost of Rosso in the castle and that he appeared like a mist-shrouded man who vanished in the corridors after a while.
Many visitors, tourists and Lari inhabitants have claimed they have caught sight of mysterious figures in the village and they have witnessed inexplicable events. Are they coincidences? Discover it yourself! Stay in one of our properties in Lari and visit the castle: it’s open all year long, it offers guided tours and the ticket costs 3€.
