The significant historical-cultural features of the Park territories have been preserved in the local place names. They are a sort of epigraphs witnessing what happened in the past. Therefore, "Lunigiana" could be Luni's land, "Garfagnana" a big sacred forest, and "Bismantova" a theater of struggles at the times of Livy or, even before, the altar of the night sacrifices that Celtic people used to offer to the Moon.
Lunigiana
The term "Lunigiana" derives from the name of the Roman territory including the port of Luni, an ancient town which became a Roman colony in 177 BC. In turn, the name "Luni" probably derives from the shape of the town recalling a half-moon or from the dedication made by the Roman settlers to the Moon goddess, Selene.
A further explanation could be linked to the several stele statues found in the lands of Lunigiana, representing in many cases men whose face is stylized with a half-moon shape.
Garfagnana
Deriving from the Latin "Carfaniana", it is referable to "Locus Feroniae", that is the forest sacred to Feronia, the goddess of fertility according to Roman mythology. The etymology probably derives from what the first settlers of this valley - first the Etruscans, and then the Romans - saw: a land rich in water and vegetation, where man could live on agriculture, sheep breeding, and forest exploitation, at direct contact with nature.
Bismantova
It is not yet clear where the name Pietra di Bismantova comes from.
According to some conjectures, the name refers to the "Suiomontium" quoted by Livy in the reconstruction of the Roman military campaign led by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus against the belligerent Ligurian tribes of the mountains, ended with the defeat of the latter in 176 BC: the campaign was carried out in the area between Mt. Valestra and Mt. Cusna.
According to another etymological proposal supported by the tangible sacredness of the mountain and the established presence of Celtic place names in Appennino Reggiano, it derives from "vis" - "mistletoe", a term rich in archaic symbologies - "men", meaning "moon", and "tua": it is a tribute of the Gauls (400 and 150 BC) to the moon goddess for whom the night rite of the mistletoe harvesting on the summit of this imposing rock altar was probably practiced.