The Rocca of Forlimpopoli

The town’s imposing Rocca (or fortress) is one of the most beautiful and best-preserved complexes in Romagna. Witness to the passing of time, it was commissioned by Cardinal Egidio d’Albornoz and was built between 1361 and 1363. Designed as a bastion on the Via Emilia and initially called Salvaterra, it was demolished by the Papal Legate Cardinal Albornoz as part of the retaliation that led to the total destruction of the rebel city. During the last decades of the 15th century, when initially under the control of the lords of Forlì, the Ordelaffi family, and then under Gerolamo Riario and Caterina Sforza, the building underwent an extensive transformation which led to the current size and appearance.

When the town returned under the direct control of Pope Julius II in 1505, the fortress was first ceded to the noble Rangoni family from Modena and then to the Zampeschi, who turned it into a princely residence. Having permanently been stripped of its military function, it finally passed to the Florentine Capponi family. The building’s slow decline began in the early 17th century and with the arrival of the French in Romagna in 1797, the complex was requisitioned and handed to the new municipality of Forlimpopoli. Between the 1970s and 1990s the fortress underwent extensive restoration and renovation work that resulted in some extremely interesting archaeological finds. Today, the Rocca is the seat of the town hall of Forlimpopoli, its Archaeological Museum, a multipurpose cultural centre and Giuseppe Verdi cinema and theatre.

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