Cattolica - Emilia Romagna - Italy

Cattolica is an Italian town of 17 143 inhabitants in the province of Rimini, in Emilia-Romagna. Overlooking the Adriatic Sea, the city is an important seaside tourism center on the Romagna Riviera and is home to industries and maritime activities. The origin of the name Cattolica cannot be documented with certainty. One of the etymological hypotheses is that it is an idronym, or a denomination derived from the small stream that flows through the town, indicated in the fourteenth century as Rivus Catholicae. A further conjecture makes it derive from the ancient Greek terms "katholikós" or "katholiká": the first (in use in the VI and VII centuries) denominated the military commander placed to administer each of the circumscriptions in which the maritime Pentapoli was divided inside of the Byzantine Exarchate, while the second indicated the general warehouse for foodstuffs established at that time in each territory. The origin is completely legendary, as described on the plaque walled in 1637 on the front of the church of S. Apollinare, which traces the toponym to a debt of gratitude to the place that hosted the Catholic bishops fleeing from a group of heretics Aryans during the year 359. History Archaeological findings show the existence of local settlements since the Bronze Age. Along the Via Flaminia the finds found are from the Roman and Byzantine periods, testifying to the ancient origin of a settlement. The first written reference (VIII century) describes the transfer to the Church, by Pippin the Short, of the territories of Pentapoli; Castrum Conchae also appears in the list of cities. Subsequent documents speak of the inhabited area of ​​Conca, equipped with a castle (the ruins of one of its towers are still found on the hill of Monte Vici, today inside the city of Cattolica). This area decayed around the year 1000, and was then totally abandoned, probably due to a catastrophic flooding or flooding [4] of the neighboring rivers (in the following centuries, various writings and maps contained the quote Conca city deep, without however explaining their meaning) [5 ]. The foundation, on via Flaminia, of a castrum in the locality of Catholica is testified by an act of 1271 in which it is reported that some inhabitants of the countries located on the surrounding Marche hills decide to settle in those lands, belonging to the Archbishopric of Ravenna, thus placing themselves under the protection of Rimini. In 1313 the church of Sant'Apollinare is mentioned, and a census of 1376 detects 25 focularia (families) in the small village. In the fifteenth century the village consolidated itself as a stopping place for those traveling between Rimini and Pesaro, offering taverns and inns to host travelers, as well as stations for changing horses, and farriers. Subsequently, the Malatesta family from Rimini built the fortress (begun in 1490 and finished around 1590), a turreted bastion for defense against invading armies and the timely sighting of raids by Saracen pirates. The Cattolica of 1573 has 150 inhabitants, but in the following years there is an expansion, and outside the small medieval village several isolated buildings are born along the axis of the Via Flaminia. The inhabitants essentially carry out the jobs of hosts and fishermen. In 1576 the church of Sant'Apollinare was elevated to a parish, a new building was built for the Pilgrims' Hospital (an institution already present since the end of the 13th century), then the adjoining Oratory and finally a new bridge over the Tavollo river. downstream of the previous [7] [8]. The old bridge over the Tavollo In the 18th century, control by Rimini weakened and the Restoration following the Napoleonic period saw the town of Cattolica and its surroundings incorporated into nearby San Giovanni in Marignano. In the nineteenth century there was a consistent demographic and urban development. In 1836 the "new road" was created, a short deviation of the Via Flaminia in a lower area to avoid the ascent of the stretch inside the town, which became difficult for the transport of heavy loads. New buildings are therefore born along the new road section ("new Cattolica"), while in the "old Cattolica" Porta Gregoriana is demolished (Porta Rimini had been demolished a few decades earlier). The mouth of the Tavollo is adapted to a canal port, fishing and related activities receive a great boost and in the immediate vicinity a new neighborhood of typical low houses of the seafarers is born. On November 10, 1861, with the construction of the Rimini-Pesaro line, the new railway station was inaugurated upstream of the town. [9] Over the course of the century from 972 inhabitants in 1814 the population passed to 3619 in 1901. This led to the administrative separation from San Giovanni in Marignano in 1896 and Cattolica became an independent municipality [10]. The market in Cattolica at the end of the nineteenth century In the second half of the nineteenth century he left, simultaneously with other coastal cities of Rome