The fortress of the emperor's humiliation
In the hills of the Reggio Apennines, on a spur of white sandstone rising above the badlands, stand the ruins of the Castle of Canossa, a place that has entered history and language: the expression "going to Canossa" still means, in many languages, humbling oneself before an adversary. In the eleventh century, the castle was the stronghold of the Canossa family and of the great countess Matilda of Canossa, one of the most powerful women of the Middle Ages, who ruled a vast territory from Lombardy to Tuscany and supported the Pope in the conflict with the Emperor known as the Investiture Controversy.
In January 1077, Pope Gregory VII, a guest of Matilda, was in the castle when Emperor Henry IV, whom he had excommunicated, arrived to ask for forgiveness: according to the chronicles, the emperor waited for three days and three nights in the snow, outside the gate of the castle, barefoot and dressed as a penitent, before the pope agreed to receive him and lift the excommunication, an event that symbolised the supremacy of spiritual power over temporal power. Of the castle, destroyed in the thirteenth century, only ruins remain today, with remains of the walls and the crypt of the church, and a small museum dedicated to its history and to Matilda. From the top, the view sweeps over the badlands and the Apennines. Nearby, the well-preserved castle of Rossena, of the same period, is also part of the "Matildic castles" circuit.
Tip: combine Canossa with the castle of Rossena and the Pietra di Bismantova; the badlands are beautiful at sunset.
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