Sasso Mobile

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.