The town of Minucciano is in the province of Lucca at the border with the province of Massa Carrara. It is set at 697 m. of altitude and it has a population of about 2400 inhabitants. This town is rich in historical architecture, such as its castle, the sanctuary of the Madonna del Soccorso, the Palazzo Baldini and the parish of San Lorenzo.

The territory of Minucciano lies between Lunigiana and Garfagnana and, therefore, it enjoys a very particular botanical abundance and landscape variety. This is due to the Apuan Alps, on one side, and to woods, pastures and a very neat countryside, on the other. The Liguri Apuani were the first population to settle these lands, and the Romans, who later subjugated them and drove them away, founded the "castrum", corresponding to the current chief town, on one of the Liguri Apuani's previous settlements.
This place was then called "Saltus" and it was the scene of a historical battle led by the consul Quinto Minucio and fought between the Romans and the Liguri in the II century B.C. It was probably in honour of this leader that the town changed its name into "Minucio". At the time of the Barbarian invasions, the Goths, the Franks and the Lombards crossed the territory of Minucciano. In the Early Middle Ages in eventually became a feud owned by the Malaspina who were the powerful rulers of the Lunigiana.
After the year 1000, this town entered the dominions of Lucca and experienced its period of maximum splendour, when it also had its currency, the "Barbone Minuccianese", that the city minted by itself. This was a privilege generally conceded to particularly rich villages and to the "comunitas" that the rulers highly thought of for their strategic and economic importance.
Before the beginning of the Modern Age, Pisa, Florence, the Visconti from Milan and the Estensi from Ferrara temporarily dominated Minucciano, too. Its definitive and natural political collocation was inside the Kingdom of Italy, to which it was annexed in 1859.
The main activities that have been characterising the economy of Minucciano during the centuries have been marble extraction and sheep-breeding. Thanks to the robustness of its economy, the town managed to overcome the two tragic earthquakes that devastated the Garfagnana in 1837 and in 1920. When the first occurred, the inhabitants of Minucciano demonstrated all their love of this land by rebuilding the ancient defence tower that overlooked the castle.