Town Tower

Built in the early 1100s (a deed from 1126 shows the owner to be the Bishop of Imola), the tower looms over the gate of the ‘castle’ which, in turn, was once enclosed within solid walls that guarded the inner settlement. This fortified cluster of houses (the Castrum, now the historic town centre) was where country dwellers would seek refuge against Hungarian raiding parties. Much of the castle’s defence relied on the two streams at the bottom of the valley; these embraced the spur on whose plateau the town was built and still stands today.

The banks of the streams gave rise to steep slopes on which buttresses were built to hold up the walls. This combination of natural and man-made defences effectively made the castle impregnable.

The buttresses that held up the old walls are still visible in the old town centre and now support a low outer wall.

Over the centuries, the tower underwent several renovations and after the Second World War it was fully rebuilt. The adjacent vault, instead, is the original and bears plaques installed by the various lordships that reigned through the eras.