An “ante litteram” newfoundland: the castle of Pietrabuona

The Castle of Pietrabuona (Pescia - PT), documented since 914, was commissioned by the Bishop of Lucca, Pietro II (896 - 933), to defend the eastern border of the diocesan estate. A review of archival sources, metrological information from the integrated survey campaign and stratigraphic surveys of the walls have given an indication of the layout of the original castle and the changes it had gone though over the years, which also corroborated the assumption that a walled settlement must have been built anew, just like the contemporary castles of Moriano, Santa Maria a Monte and San Gervasio. The urban layout of the castle grew up in Pietrabuona around an original planned centre, assumedly bound by a wooden fencing and composed of two parallel rows of buildings, with a steward’s building at the bottom – the latter most likely planned but not built until much later –, expanding in larger and larger circles until it took up all the free areas within the 14th-century walls