Massa

Massa lies below the Apuan Alps near the Tuscan coast, under the castle of the Malaspina. Its history was closely bound to neighbouring Carrara and its marble country. In 1434 Antonio Alberico Malaspina, marquis of Fosdinovo, was chosen to rule Massa, and later took the title of marquis of Massa.

The marriage of Ricciarda Malaspina to Lorenzo Cybo established the line of Cybo-Malaspina rulers. Under Alberico I, Emperor Maximilian II raised Massa to a principality in 1567; in 1664 Emperor Leopold I made it a duchy. Carrara was raised to the rank of a principality in the same imperial grant, under the same ruling family. Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina married Ercole d’Este and ruled until 1790, when she was succeeded by their daughter Maria Beatrice.