Sasso Mobile

This ancient, elegant, noble home represents a rare example of continuous habitation from the 1st century B.C. to the present. Excavations carried out at the end of the 19th century brought to light remnants of walls, floors and a bath coming from the late Roman Republican era. Fortified in the Middle Ages, the building became the Castle of Casalecchio, which, from its strategic position, dominated the road, the bridge, the ford through the Reno and the entire flatlands below. It was not until 1500, when the Bolognese territory was finally at peace and became part of the Papal States, that the castle finally abandoned its military function and became a private residence. First owned by the Ballantini family, it later passed to the Counts of the Cospi family who played various roles in the Bolognese government: assigned in 1406 to the citizens' Senate, they were then nominated Marquis in the 18th century. At the beginning of the 1800s the Cospis sold the villa to Prof. Giovanni Aldini, eminent scientist and politician, nephew of Luigi Galvani and brother of Antonio Aldini, who had been one of Napoleon's ministers. The villa was handed down through generations of Aldinis, into the hands of the owner Giuseppe Ghillini, thanks to whom this marvelous building, damaged in the war, has been restored to its original splendor.