Senio Valley: Casola Valsenio, Riolo Terme
Lamone Valley: Brisighella, Faenza
General introduction
The number of inhabitants grew a lot during the medieval period. The Rationes Decimarum (taxes payed by the varoius religious institutes to the Roman church - papal taxation list) gives us an clear idea of the situation and inform us regarding the exhistance of many rural churches.
From the X century, after a long invasion coming from North Europe, many castels were built and had the function to aggregate people.
The political-social and religious events during the medieval period are visible also today through the fortresses, towers and castels with their churches. Most of them were built along the chalk vien and were difficult to reach.
Municipality: Terre di Faenza
The Senio Valley: Casola Valsenio
Along the valley of the river Senio, the SS306 road Casolana - Riolese runs from Castel Bolognese crossing the Apennines towards Tuscany.
Along the Senio Valley, you'll be surrounded by a many coloured landscape, perfumed with lavender and aromatic herbs uptill the town of Casola Valsenio.
This locality has a very ancient history, as documented by the archaeological finds made in the area which testified to human settelments dating to the 7th - 4th centuries BC. The original built-up nucleus of Casola is identifiable as the Chiesa di Sopra locality. Between the late Middle Age and the beginning of the mordern age there was a progressive shifting of the built-up area towards the present day position along the left bank of the river Senio.
A kilometer from the built-up area of Casola, we find the abbey of Valsenio that, like the nearby San Pietro in Sala, had a fundamental role in the religious and economic history of the zone because the Benedictine monks living there in the Middle Age drained the land of the river Senio middle valley, thus permitting the introduction of new crops such as olive.
On the opposite side of the road, a few hundred meters away, is the "Cardello", originally the hospitum of the abbey. Documentation doesn't permit precise dating of the foundation of the building. Its construction may be considered to have followed that of the nearby abbey by a few years.
On the boundary with the Province of Florence, along the Casolana road, stands the parish church of Sant'Apollinare, a building which, though the interior has been considerably redone, shows a link, in its architectural forms, with the taste usually defined as Po Valley - Romanesque".
Municipality: Terre di Faenza
The Senio Valley: Riolo Terme
Along the valley of the river Senio the national highway SS 306 Casolana Riolese runs from Castel Bolognese, crossing the Apennines to Tuscany.
The town of Riolo stands alongthe via Casolana on an upland plain bordered by the river Senio with traces of neolithic settelments. Riolo owes its fame mainly to its mineral waters: for their therapeutic attributes, they were appreciated back in Roman times and Medieval Age and attracted guests since Napoleonic period.
The valley had been abandoned in the period following the fall of the Roman Empire. Thanks to the drainage activities carried out by the Benedictine priests,around the IX century, the valley was pole of attraction for the repopulation. The Benedictine priests built the Benedictine Abbey of San Pietro in Sala, the riuns of which are now included in a farmhouse in the Laderchio locality.
Like most hill settelments, in the Middle Ages the built - up area of Riolo was established on the plateau. The fortress dates to 1388, under the Bolognesi Family's rule.
Municipality: Terre di Faenza
The Lamone Valley: Brisighella
From Faenza the road SS 302 along the Lamone valley leads to Brisighella. This route was popular since ancient times, and was prefered, during the Middle Age, to the Via Flaminia, to get to Rome.
The origins of the town are rather mysterious, it seems that ruins found in this area document the presence of human settlements since Roman times inhabited by workers of the chalk quarry. The establishment of the present day built-up area is traditionally attributed to Maghinardo Pagani, a commander who in the Middle Age had great power in Romagna.
Legend has it that he was buried with his "vallombrosana" tunic, or converted fact that makes him similar to the great warriors who after Lancelot abandoned terrestrial life for mystical religious inspiration. Maghinardo, in opposition to Francesco Manfredi, the lord of Faenza, erected a tower in great selenite blocks, the present day fortress on the hill overlooking the built-up area.
The plan of the urban centre is medieval and characterised by a typically hill culture type of civil architecture where the so-called "Via degli Asini" (Donkey Street) stands out, a road protected by an arcade, which in the past acted as a defence until it became the home of the local breeders who kept their donkeys in the "cameroni" of the town.
A few kilometers from Brisighella, along the Apennine strech of the Faventina is the parish church of San Giovanni in Ottavo (commonly called the parish church of Tho), legend says that it was built by Galla Placidia.
Municipality: Terre di Faenza
The Lamone Valley: Faenza
The national highway SS 302 Faentina runs from Ravenna to Faenza, cutting the plain to the North of the Via Emilia, not at right angles to it, following the ancient course of Lamone river.
Faenza is a Roman plan town (the name comes from Faventina) developed in the late republican period along the Via Emilia near the river Lamone. The town is universally known for its production of ceramics, a fame that for many years caused the history of italian majolica to be identified with the history of Faenza majolica.
The urban structure of the present day historic centre substantially traces the Roman layout although later interventions have in certain cases altered the regularity of the original grid.
The first stone of the present day cathedral was laid in 1474, commissioned by bishop Federico Manfredi. The consecration of this building occured many years later in 1581.
In the present day urban structure few traces emerge of the religious buildings that dominated the centre in the Middle Ages. The basilica of Santa Maria foris portam, or Santa Maria Vecchia, with many wrongly consider to be the original cathedral of the town. The bell-tower probably built in the 10th - 11th centuries, is, with its octagonal plan, a unique thing without comparision in the region, which has led to the supposition that this structure stands on the walls of an earlier baptistery.
The crypt of the church of Santi Ippolito e Lorenzo is all that survives of the medieval church whose definite chronology is unknown. It was replaced by a new building between 1771 and 1774.
The church of was founded with the annexed Ospizio del Santo Sepolcro, maybe in the first years of the 12th century. Of this original complex, Santa Maria Maddalena della Commenda established as a Commendam of the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and later the Knights of the order of Malta, few traces remain enclosed in the present day building.
