The territory of Bassa Romagna was colonised by the Romans between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD, profoundly transforming the landscape. Through deforestation and the regulation of watercourses, the Romans organised the territory between the Via Emilia and today’s Via San Vitale according to the centuriation scheme, subdividing the land into geometric plots, assigned to former soldiers and freedmen.
Even today, signs of this ancient subdivision are still visible in the agri of Lugo and Bagnacavallo, a legacy that can be explored by walking along the minor roads, far from traffic. The flat conformation of the area also makes this route perfect for cycling tourism, offering an immersive journey through history.
From museums to open-air artefacts, this route leads to the discovery of stelae, tombstones, tools and coins, precious fragments that tell the story of daily life in ancient north-western Romandiola. Each stage like a piece of a mosaic to be reconstructed, following the traces of Roman times between archaeology, history and landscape.
PRATICAL INFO
INFO
– Interests: Art and culture
– Duration: 48 h
– When: all year
ITINERARY
First stop – Bagnacavallo
Ancient parish church of San Pietro in Sylvis
The Pieve di San Pietro in Sylvis is one of the most precious religious buildings in Bassa Romagna, a witness to the historical stratification of the territory. Located in Bagnacavallo, it stands within the ancient centuriazione, an area that in Roman times was divided into agricultural plots and dedicated to rural settlements.
It is assumed that the parish church was built near an ancient temple dedicated to Jupiter, a sacred place where ceremonies for the manumission of slaves also took place. Confirming this theory are the reused materials used in the construction of the church in the 7th century: some fragments, including votive cippus dedicated to Jupiter, were found in the 20th century and are now preserved in the Museo Civico Lapidario di Ferrara.
Inside the parish church, on the left wall, one can observe a lapidary containing evidence from the Roman era, including manubrium bricks, typical of the building style of the time, still visible at the base of the structure. The complex also hosts two fragmentary sandstone plutei (parapets decorated with Christian symbols in bas-relief) and the marble arches of an early-medieval ciborium (an architectural element in the shape of a canopy that contained the pyx with consecrated hosts) that add further charm to this place rich in history.
Visiting the Pieve di San Pietro in Sylvis means immersing oneself in a place that narrates the evolution of the sacred and civil landscape of Bassa Romagna, from its Roman roots to the Middle Ages.
The parish church is part of the itineraries Pievi (parish churches) in Bassa Romagna and The colors of the sacred.
Second stop – Bagnacavallo
Capuchin Museum
Staying in Bagnacavallo but moving to the town centre, we enter the Museo Civico delle Cappuccine (Capuchin Museum); its cloister houses a precious testimony to Roman times: the tombstone of Caio Mansuanio Consorzio.
Discovered in the 1950s during excavations in a clay quarry not far from the town centre, this funerary stele represents an important trace of an ancient Roman necropolis. The inscription bears the name of Caio Mansuanio Consorzio, a personage distinguished for his munificence in civic duties, and mentions the juvenile college dedicated to Iovius, probably referring to the emperor Diocletian.
Next to the tombstone, the cloister preserves a number of cippus made of spungone (a typical karstic sandstone rock from Romagna), which represent one of the oldest religious attestations in the region. The inscriptions refer to deities such as Feronia, Fone Quiet and Salus, linked to the agricultural and sylvan world. According to scholars, these boundary stones delimited a sacred area, suggesting the possible existence of an open-air sanctuary dedicated to deities protecting fertility and the freeing of slaves, active until the late imperial age.
Thanks to these finds, the Museo Civico delle Cappuccine offers a fascinating journey into the past, providing a vivid picture of religious and social practices in Bassa Romagna in Roman times.
Third stop – Cotignola
Stele of Caio Vario or of the Varii
Leaving Bagnacavallo we reach Cotignola to discover an important testimony of Roman funeral culture in Bassa Romagna, the Varii funeral stele, discovered in the early decades of the 19th century along one of the minor hinges of the centuriazione. This road system saw the Faenza-Bagnacavallo road as its maximum hinge, confirming the strategic importance of this area already in imperial times.
Dated between 30 and 40 AD, the stele belongs to the ‘pseudoedicola’ typology, a monumental form characterised by an upper niche in which the busts of Caio Vario, his wife (a freedwoman) and their young son are sculpted. This family representation is one of the most poignant expressions of the cult of the dead in ancient Rome, where the memory and honour of the dead were fundamental elements of social life.
The stele is displayed outside Palazzo Sforza, home to the Civic Museum, and is always visible to visitors. Next to it, there are two other significant funerary testimonies:
– An epigraph on a limestone slab from the 1st century A.D., with an invocation to the Hand Gods by Caio Rufruno Severo, another Roman citizen of the area.
– A cappuccina tomb, one of the most common types of burial in ancient Rome, built with sloping tiles to protect the body of the deceased.
These finds represent an important window on the past, allowing us to reconstruct funerary practices and the value of family memory in Roman times. The stele of the Varii, in particular, tells not only the story of an individual, but also the desire of a family to leave a tangible sign of its existence through the centuries.
Fourth stop – Bagnara di Romagna
Castle Museum
From the historic centre of Cotignola through the Romagna countryside we reach the romantic Rocca sforzesca of Bagnara di Romagna.
In Roman times, the territory of Bagnara di Romagna was part of the VIII regio augustea and was included in the centuriazione of Forum Cornelii (present-day Imola). This centre, located along the Via Emilia, was one of the main axes of the Decumanus Maximus, the artery that structured the entire Roman road system of the region.
The archaeological research carried out in the area has made it possible to reconstruct, albeit partially, the presence of rustic settlements, as evidenced by the outcrops of materials that emerged in the fields after ploughing. These finds indicate the spread of agricultural villas and farms, which formed the heart of the local economy, based on agricultural production and livestock breeding.
To discover more about this remote past, the Bagnara di Romagna Castle Museum houses a valuable collection of objects related to daily life in Roman times. Among the most significant exhibits are:
– Domestic furnishings, witnesses to everyday life in Roman homes.
– Bronze furniture keys, revealing the use of refined furnishings.
– Clothing accessories, including buckles and fibulae, used in both military and civil spheres.
Of particular interest are two precious bronze statuettes, attributed to the domestic cult. These small simulacra, depicting Minerva (goddess of wisdom and war) and Mercury (protector of travellers and traders) respectively, offer an insight into the religious beliefs of Roman families.
A visit to the Castle Museum allows visitors to immerse themselves in a reality of rituals, daily work and material culture, providing a vivid picture of the Roman presence in Bassa Romagna.
The Rocca sforzesca is part of the Itinerary of Fortresses and Towers in Bassa Romagna.
Fifth stop – Massa Lombarda
Museo Civico Carlo Venturini
We continue on our way to the last stop on our itinerary, which takes us to the Museo Carlo Venturini in Massa Lombarda, an important testimony to the 19th-century passion for wunderkammer, the ‘chambers of wonders’ that collected objects of all kinds, from historical artefacts to souvenirs from all over the Mediterranean.
Among the most interesting collections are the Roman artefacts, which offer an insight into the daily life and religious beliefs of the time:
– Roman vases, including a fine ‘lacrimal vase’ or unguentarium, used to contain perfumed essences and ritual oils.
– Fibulae dating from the 8th to 6th century BC, used to fasten clothing, with both ornamental and practical functions.
– Oil lamps from various epochs, from the earliest dating from the 5th-4th centuries BC to the late Republican and Augustan and Imperial periods. Some are in the shape of a disc or bird’s head, and come from both Rome and the African provinces.
Of particular interest is the collection of votive statuettes, intended for sanctuaries and domestic altars. These small sculptures are inspired by great classical statuary and represent figures such as Hercules, Victory, the Dancing Lare and worshippers in prayer or in the act of offering.
A true jewel of the collection is the group of votive stelae from the Carthaginian Tophet, with inscriptions in arcane handwriting that reveal ancient rituals and traditions of the Phoenician and Punic civilisations. These testimonies offer a direct link between the Carthaginian and Roman worlds, marking the passage of a culture that, after the conquest, was assimilated into the Empire.
The exhibition is completed by a valuable numismatic collection, ranging from Greek and Roman coins to medieval and modern ones, offering an overview of economic and commercial evolution over time.
The Museo Carlo Venturini is therefore a unique place, where history intertwines with collecting, offering visitors a journey into the past through rare and curious objects, evidence of the cultural richness of the ancient world.
