Tuscany, Castelvecchio Pascoli and Church of St. Niccolo’

The church of St. Niccolo’ sits perched high on a hill overlooking the Serchio Valley. From the windows inside the Vestry there are panoramic dramatic views of the Hills surrounding Barga.

St. Nicolo’ from the orchard at the back. This garden belongs to the Pascoli museum.

The little Church

Photo taken before the new orchard was planted. Where old bones lie

The little church and her archives holds many secrets and our ancestors were married, baptised and buried here. The Quilietti name is unique and we find it also with the spelling Guiglietti in the census information as well as in the baptism records. However there are also many generations of Conti and Brucciani ancestors whose lives and deaths are all documented in the precious archives of the village.

The orchard at the back of the Church links directly to the Pascoli Museum

And the Bells Rang out for Fallon’s wedding

Barga from the Hills overlooking the Serchio Valley

You find the Church from the village square and through a vennell

from where you walk along a path. You pass by the old village oven where the residents of Castelvecchio Pascoli used to bake their communal bread.

Jamie in the Village sourrounded by vines

The little church itself has only a handful of pews and is simply decorated, not ornate like the larger Churches in nearby Barga.

In the 1890s there were 90 families in the village and this was very carefully documented every year in these precious books. The Don would carefully do a census every year and document the families one by one, even although many members of the families were absent from the village at the time. He would however always add them into the CHURCH Census which I find most strange. Our own family were generally family No. 4 in house No. 64 of the village.

The everseeing Eye from the ceiling of the little church

1892 census. Emilio and Augusto are absent

Giuseppe Conti family No. 3. He was Eletta's line

Family 3 were the Conti family who were Eletta’s maternal line. Giuseppe was her uncle, her mother, Maria Teresa Conti’s brother. They lived at house no.70 in the village

Family 2 were also the Conti family, this time Eletta’s cousins. You can see that Giuliano was now in America