Sillano is in the province of Lucca at an altitude of 740 m asl and it has a population of about 800 inhabitants. In this municipality, that borders with the Emilia Romagna region, the Parco dell'Orecchiella, the church of San Michele Arcangelo and the church of Valle di Soraggio can be visited.

A Latin inscription, visible until the XVIII century over the central gate of the parish church, narrates the legend of the town's foundation and testifies the origins of this town. This epigraph reads that the creation of Sillano took place around the year 652 of the Roman calendar (102 B.C.) when a leader of mercenaries, who then was Mario's lieutenant, was in Liguria after leading a campaign against the Teutons.
According to historians, this reconstruction is quite reliable. First of all, the in that period the Roman army was being deployed to protect the arrival of their commander Gaio Mario. Secondly, the resistance to a second invasion by the Cimbrians, who were descending along the Pianura Padana, was being organized.
In effect, a battle between the Cimbrians and the Romans was fought in 101 B.C. Nevertheless, archaeological studies could not justify this legend, since the traces of the Roman passage in Sillano, have not been found, yet.
The second part of the inscription is more plausible and it informs of the fact that the territory was evangelized by the pope Eutichiano in 276 A.D. It is worth believing that Christianity rapidly spread in those regions that were abundant in communications with Rome. Moreover, Eutichiano comes from Luni that at the time was certainly more influent and culturally more similar to Rome than Lucca, which was Christianized only in the IV century A.D. by San Frediano.
This village developed in the Early Middle Ages and it only played a particular strategic role until the survival of the Castellaccio, its ancient fortress. Until the XIV century, the latter had been a safe bulwark against the Barbarian hordes and, later, against the brigandage that ravaged the Garfagnana.
At the beginning of the XIV century, Castruccio Castracani, lord of Lucca, took the control of the territory and destroyed the castle.
The Castellaccio fell into ruin after being decayed, depopulated and set on fire by Castruccio, to the extent that its debris were hardly visible by the XVIII century. The rest of the population moved southwards.
In 1430 the area of the Garfagnana started to be pacified by the Estensi, the lords of Emilia who took control of the territory and included it into their Dukedom of Modena. From then on, the story of this municipality followed the destiny of the Emilia state until its annexation to the Kingdom of Italy in 1859.