The city of Massa, that nowadays has almost 70000 inhabitants, is extended over a small medieval centre next to the rock, surrounded by the urban development of the 16th century, towards the actual Marina.
Even though the archaeological study of the area has confirmed that the zone was inhabited already during the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic, such as other centres of Tuscany, it is thought that the village of Massa has Roman origins approximately dating back to the first centuries AC.
The city was born along the consular via Aemilia Scauri which was going up the coast of the Tirreno sea up to reach Luni; in some documents of the upper Middle Ages, in fact, is first named a “Tavern”, along the river Frigido, that still crosses Massa nowadays, and later on, in 882 AC, there is a specific reference to a village called “Massa Prope Frigidum”.
The position at the extreme north of Tuscany will make of Massa a city with a particular story with respect to the other most important centres of Tuscany; in fact, the fact to be almost at the boundaries of Liguria but also of Emilia Romagna, and so to say submitted to the direct influence of Florence for the interposition at the south of Lucca, explains why Massa will be able to escape during the Renaissance from the attraction exercised by the Seigniory of the Medici Family.
After the development following the decadence of the city of Luni as a diocese, Massa from the 9th century up to approximately the middle of the 15th century will see first the leadership of the Duke of Modena and of the family of the Obertenghi, then more than once the leadership of Pisa, of Lucca and for short periods also of Florence.
The Malaspina family, that will indelibly mark the story of Massa also after the unification with the Liguria family name of the Cybo, takes the control of the city in 1442 with the marquis Alberico I.
The era of main development is marked by the figure of Alberico Cybo, son of Lorenzo Cybo and Ricciarda Malaspina, who since 1553 tries to valorise in the best way the resources of the territory, first of all the marble quarries on the Apuane Alps, and to found the ones of “Massa Cybea” which nowadays represents the historic centre of Massa. The political management and the internal affairs of the city are close to the European model and follow the examples of the other centres of Tuscany, since in 1741 the family name of the Cybo unifies itself with the one of the D’Este through the wedding between Maria Teresa Cybo and the Prince Ercole Rinaldo D’Este.
Even though later on the duchess provided a regulation for the commerce of the marble, founded an hospital in the structure of the ex Augustinian convent and founded also the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, the fact that she has decided to live with the husband in Modena took her irretrievably away from the destiny of the city.
After the French revolution the first years of the 19th century are marked by the Napoleonic government of the Princedom of Lucca led by Elisa Baciocchi, which determines an important urban transformation of the city centre, starting from the destruction of the parish church of St.Peter, in front of the Ducal Palazzo, in order to realise the”imperial piazza”, nowadays known as “Piazza Aranci”.
After the Convention of Vienna, Maria Beatrice D’Este comes back to the leadership of Massa providing a vast project of public works forecasting the realisation of roads, bridges, churches, a new aqueduct and an hospital; nevertheless, the dynasty of the Este will be definitely driven away from the city around 1859, when the inhabitants, through a plebiscite, decide to unify themselves to the Kingdom of Sardinia.