Rocchetta Mattei

Cesare Mattei born in Bologna on 11 January 1809 from a wealthy family, grew up in contact with the greatest thinkers of the time such as Paolo Costa, Marco Minghetti, Antonio Montanari and Rodolfo Audinot. In 1837 he was one of the 100 founders of the Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna. He received the title of Count in 1847 from Pope Pius IX against a land donation in that of Comacchio, the fortress of Magnavacca (now Porto Garibaldi), which would help the papal state to stop the Austrian advance. The death of his mother in 1844 proved him hard, he took it especially with the classical medicine of the time which, according to him, he did not know how to do anything to cure his mother or to alleviate the pain that accompanied his illness. For this reason, having left social relations and politics, he retired to the Vigorso estate and began to study a "new medicine" that was more effective. In 1850 he purchased the land where the ruins of the ancient fortress of Savignano stood and on November 5 of the same year he laid the first stone of the castle which he would have called "Rocchetta", where he settled permanently starting in 1859 apparently directing the construction personally. The castle has been a building site open for the whole life of the count and even further since a large part of it was completed by his adopted son Mario Venturoli Mattei, it can be said that the town of Riola developed precisely in parallel and by virtue of the existence of this building site. In fact, the original nocleo was limited to what is now called "Riola Vecchia" where, as the SS64 Porrettana does not yet exist, the road turned towards the ridge to reach Gaggio Montano and then descend to Bagni della Porretta now Porretta Terme. He devoted almost all his life to the study of an empirical medical science, called Electromeopathy and its popularization and that led him to reach a worldwide fame in the twenty years 1860-1880. Following his death, April 3, 1896, the heirs continued the production and distribution of the "Rimedi Mattei" until 1959 when the laboratories were forced to close for various reasons. As for the Castello della Rocchetta, after several attempts to sell it to the Municipality of Bologna or to other entities, they concluded the sale with a local merchant Primo Stefanelli called "Il Mercantone". The latter after adding previously nonexistent details such as prisons, razor well etc. managed it as an attraction until it was closed due to stability and security problems. In 2005 the Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna Foundation (Carisbo) bought the castle and after a careful design study began its consolidation and a faithful restoration which has now reached about 2/3 of the total. Drone: Phantom 2 + Gopro hero 4 Soundtrack: The Final Climb - Alive - James Newton Howard