PALACES AND HISTORIC BUILDINGS
PALAZZO SANUTI
Sanuti Palace, built by Nicolò Sanuti, a rich nobleman who played a fundamental role in Bolognese political life of the 1400s, can be considered a monument to the progress of feminism. Nominated as the first Count of Porretta in 1447 (the family’s crest can still be seen over the entryway), Sanuti married Nicolosa Castellani, a noblewoman renowned for the famous speech she delivered in Latin speaking out against Cardinal Bessarione of Bologna’s decree forbidding women from wearing ostentatious clothes or jewels. Nicolosa’s rebellion represented an act of enormous courage which is considered to be one of the humble beginnings of the feminist movement. The building, Sanuti’s vacation house, is located in the center of Borgo di Fontana and on an outer wall traces of a portrait of Nicolò and his famous wife can still be discerned. At one corner of the palace we find a shrine containing a statue of the Madonna and Child attributed to the studio of Jacopo della Quercia. The hamlet gets its name from the sumptuous, still functioning fountain found in the villa’s courtyard fed by fresh spring water. Every year in July a medieval festival in honor of the Countess Nicolosa is held in this palace that was her home.
VILLA LA QUIETE DI MEZZANA
An immense chestnut wood, a rare thing to find in the flatlands, is the backdrop for this 17th century villa which was named “The Quiet” by its builder, Abbot Belloni, because it was to provide a peaceful setting for him to live out his final years. The Abbot, from a family of Bolognese nobility, leveled two adjoining hills immersed in the tranquility of nature, with a view that extends all the way to Saint Luke’s in Bologna, as the grounds for his new home. The villa, externally of simple design, is graced by elegant wrought iron balconies and a central tower. It was later owned by the eccentric opera singer, Gardini Gestner, who turned it into a school for aspiring vocalists. They say that the power of the young students’ voices was subjected to stringent testing: while Gestner stayed in the main building, the pupil was sent several hundreds of meters away to a building known as the “coffee lodge.” Inside, beyond the vast arcade, a grand staircase leads to a series of rooms on two upper floors. The walls are decorated with painted pastoral scenes. Nowadays the Villa can be rented for private parties and the chestnut grove hosts the Festival of the Blonde Chestnuts of the Bolognese Hills on the second Sunday in October, with folk dancing, stands selling typical local products, fresh and roasted chestnuts.
VILLA ACHILLINI
Built in the 16th century by a Bolognese nobleman, Giovanni Filotteo Achillini, this castle-like villa, located in the heart of Sasso Marconi, is characterized by a central tower flanked by two smaller ones. The villa stands out against the green backdrop of the hillside, at the foot of Castel del Vescovo which looks down from on high over the whole town. Giovanni’s nephew, Claudio Achillini, Bolognese poet and jurist, chose the peaceful countryside of Sasso, first as a sanctuary in which to concentrate on his studies, and later to seek refuge when the plague invaded Bologna in 1630, despite the insistence of the Cardinal Legate, to whom he served as secretary, that he resume his activities. He remained instead to compose poetry and pray for his salvation to his patron saint, Saint Apollonius, to whom he dedicated the a chapel he ordered built (Oratory of Saint Apollonius). It was here in the towers that Achillini composed some of the sonnets for which he is most famous, such as those dedicated to Louis XIII of France for the conquest of La Rochelle.
PALAZZO DE’ ROSSI
Palazzo de’ Rossi is “one of those extremely rare places in our local villages where people meet to enjoy pleasant pastimes.” So said Leandro Alberti, author of Historia di Bologna, describing this impressive complex, comprised of both the noblemen’s palace and the farmers' cottages and craftsmen's workshops. The Palace, in late Bolognese Gothic style (recognizable by its crown of terracotta turrets and ornamentation) was begun in 1482 by Bartolomeo Rossi, a cultured humanist, descended from a famous Bolognese family of bankers, and completed by his sons. The residence became one of the most sumptuous homes of the Bolognese County and provided hospitality to such illustrious guests as John II Bentivoglio, Torquato Tasso and the Popes Jules II, Paolo III and Leone X, by whom the Rossis were granted feudal jurisdiction over the village of Pontecchio. Of particular interest is the “Italian Garden,” a simple rectangle enclosed between a bluff and a man-made canal which brings in water from the Reno River and feeds a unique underground irrigation system. The great archway is still standing through which we glimpse the still-inhabited village, and a drawbridge still leads over the original moat, flanked by the antique dove-cote. The lawn in front of the western face of the complex hosts an important livestock fair whose existence has been documented since 1673, known as Fira di Sdaz, held around the 8th of September each year.
THE HAMLET OF COLLE AMENO
The hamlet of Colle Ameno, crowning achievement in an Enlightenment Age project commissioned by Filippo Carlo Ghisilieri, Senator of the City of Bologna, in 1700, appears as an impressive complex of crimson buildings. The plan was to create a modern, autonomous, urbanistic nucleus which would include not only the villa, but also all the outlying structures necessary for everyday life: shops, a theatre, a hospital, a potter's, a printer's, a church and other service buildings like stables, sheds, barns, and storehouses. Annexed to the hamlet is an 18th century Baroque oratory, the only one of its kind, dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua. With a cross-shaped layout and a façade shared with the hospital, the building is characterized by two entryways and a tall, flat bell tower with a clock painted under the bell. The inside is decorated with frescoes, paintings wooden altars and sculptures created by master sculptors Angelo Gabriello Piò and Mauro Aldrovandini. The hamlet is still inhabited today, and the antique craft workshops have been restored. Blue and white floral-designed pottery is once again being produced here. During World War II, Colle Ameno was occupied by the Germans as a sorting center for prisoners captured during round-up raids (see Memorial Hall).
MEMORIAL HALL
During the Second World War, Colle Ameno was used by the Germans to support their air force, as a military hospital, a prison and a prisoner sorting station. Civilian males between the ages of 17 and 55 were rounded up and separated into three categories: the youngest and strongest were sent to work camps in Germany; those not as young but still able-bodied were used to dig trenches, build forts and plant mines along the Gothic Line; the sick or crippled were shot. Testimonies indicate that the ground floor rooms of the central part of Villa Davia were used as prisons. On the walls of the building some civilians wrote their names, sometimes the date and their addresses with pieces of charcoal. Images, testimonies and artifacts are kept in the Aula della Memoria (Memorial Hall), a documentation and educational center and multimedia consultation library, tracing history from the fascist period to the present.
VILLAGE OF JANO
Chestnuts and sunflowers line the road that leads to Iano, a little cluster of buildings maintaining the characteristic air of centuries past, by the grace of its architecture and the charm of its surroundings. Iano, known as Agnàno until the 16th century, developed around the structures of the parish church of Saint Peter of Iano, a 13th century foundation known as “the Tower,” probably on the south side, a few stone houses and a medieval castle (on the hill known as Castellaccio). The rich red church of Saint Peter's, mentioned in the Nonantola List of 1396, its façade and bellfry rebuilt in 1640, stands out for its beauty. The interior is graced by three altars and a precious statue of the Madonna of the Rosary by Filippo Scandellari and a Via Crucis by Francesco Caroli. The church is now privately owned and, due to the sparse population of the area, only used on special occasions.
VILLA PANGLOSSIANA
Villa Panglossiana was devised by Professor Gaetano Conti to serve as a cultural center which would host the most famous representatives of early19th century Bolognese art and culture in exchange for getting frescoes painted on its walls and ceilings. The Villa's name recalls Pangloss, the character of Candide's tutor in the work by Voltaire, whose motto \"tout pour le mieux\"- “everything is for the best”- was adopted by Prof. Conti. Each of Conti's guests recorded an entry of his impressions of the villa in a notebook, still excellently preserved, consisting in poems, sonnets, reflections or drawings. The three-storey villa is structured around a central gallery flanked by lateral mezzanines.The surrounding park completes the eccentric vision of the professor, with a temple dedicated to Pangloss, some gothic ruins, a now ruined hermit's cave and a little garden cannon which fired a daily shot a noon thanks to an apparatus activated by sunlight. The complex also included some buildings designed as workshops which remained in use up until the 1960s.
VILLA FRANCIA
Villa Francia is one of the most refined villas in the Sasso Marconi area. Built in 1787, it sill maintains today its original appearance. The façade is graced by a stairway leading to the front door and two small, lateral towers add to the structure's imponence. The salon formed at the crossways of its perpendicular galleries used to house a series of statues representing Bolognese Commedia dell'Arte characters. During the War, the villa provided “refuge” for the bells of Vizzano parish church, which had been bombarded. The church, contrary to expectations, was never rebuilt and the bells are currently kept in a bell tower in Palestine.
VILLA MARANINA
This 16th century villa was first owned by the powerful Colonna family, from Rome, as attested by the family crest on one side of the tower. It then became the property of the Boncompagni family, who had their emblem painted on the front of the building, topped by a cardinal's hat. The central building, with a five-arched, ground floor portico, constitutes the actual villa. The side wings are rural outbuildings, including the outstanding tall tower, adorned with characteristic terracotta dentils. Inside we find the typical loggia corridor which characterizes Bolognese villas.