Discover Romanesque: Peoples and Legends

The abbot of Camaiore

In the course of a few centuries, the southern part of the territory of Versilia was subtracted to marshlands, with difficulty. Reclamation works also involved the river Camaiore, a minor watercourse flowing through the inhabited centre of Camaiore. Rising in Mount Prana, its last tract was adjusted, channelled and given the name of ‘Fossa dell’Abate’. It is said that such enterprise  was carried out in the 14th century by an abbot of the Badia S. Pietro of Camaiore. The tradition reveals an echo of San Frediano’s legend: a bishop from Lucca in the 6th century, he was attributed the miraculous diversion of the river Serchio in order to free the town from its floods.