Castiglione di Garfagnana is one of the most important examples of still inhabited Tuscan castles. It is set at 545 m. a.s.l. with a population of 2,000 inhabitants. The whole town is an open air museum rich in medieval architectural evidences, such as the Torrione della Brunella and the XV century church of the saint Peter and Michael.

At the beginning of its history, Castiglione was a "castrum", a typical fortified village of the Roman times. Yet, it really developed after the fall of the empire, when the continuous Barbarian invasions caused the arrival of the Lombards, first, and of the Franks, later, who created the Sacred Roman Empire. Around the year 1000, the country had already been remarkably fortified under the aegis of the empire. At this time the fortress developed with the name of "Castrum Leonis" (castle of the lion) from which the current toponym of the chief town.
In 1170, the aims of Lucca on the territory of Castiglione took shape under the form of a long siege, at the end of which the very inhabitants of Lucca had to repair the huge damage to the castle after they had conquered it. The town became the base of a vicariate. In the following century, the inhabitants of Castiglione organized a revolt against Lucca that started in 1227 and that also involved the emperor Frederick II and pope Gregorio IX, too, who intervened to pacify the area. In this occasion, too, Castiglione was defeated and overturned by destructions and pillages.
The walls as we see them today were rebuilt in 1371, after Charles IV of Bohemia conquered the town. He took the territory of Castiglione away from the Republic of Pisa. The latter had taken possession of it in 1345 when the Malaspina, the rulers of the Garfagnana, gave it to them. At that time, the town was very wide and it appeared as an enclave inside the dominions of Modena that had recently been established in the territory of Lucca. The town also endured numerous attacks by the troops of the Estensi.
In 1603, the intervention of the troops from Milan, sent here by the king of Spain, ended a first siege. This episode repeated in 1614 ad culminated with Castiglione being handed back to Lucca according to the king of Spain's will. The town went through the incursions of the Napoleonic troops (end of the XVIII century) together with Lucca and it later entered the kingdom of Italy in 1859 at the end of the Risorgimento uprisings.