After the Pradalinara pass, Via dei Monti crosses the villages of Torrano and Cavezzana Gordana. The toponym Torrano derives from a watchtower placed along the route or from a structure dedicated to the storage of foodstuffs, as many can be identified in Lunigiana with the same purpose. In medieval times it was an important center from an architectural and demographic point of view, so much so that it had its own representative in the ancient “council”. The archaeological discoveries of the nearby Monte Burello testify that it was frequented already in the Ligurian age.
Torrano consists of two small villages, Chiesa and Valle. The parish church dedicated to San Geminiano has been documented since the 13th century as a dependency on the parish church of Saliceto, near Pontremoli.
Descending towards the Gordana torrent, which forms the narrow gorges known as the “Stretti di Giaredo”, a beautiful and delicate natural area of five canyons included in the Unesco MAB Reserve, there is the small village of Cavezzana. The village, documented since 1295, was an agricultural area where pilgrims and merchants could find refreshment and hospitality in the Middle Ages. The church of Santa Maria Assunta, mentioned in fourteenth-century documents, has undergone many changes over the centuries.
The ancient bridge, located just outside the town, already documented in the 14th century with having a wooden structure, which was replaced in the 16th century by a masonry structure, still represents the only access road to Pontremoli today.
Upstream of Cavezzana Gordana in 1938 the Falck company started the construction of a reservoir completed in 1941. The dam is located two kilometers upstream from the “Stretti di Giaredo”.
