Ancient village of Montorio - fraction of Monzuno (Bologna)

The territory of the Municipality of Monzuno is located between the Setta, Savena and Sambro valleys (which represent the three main rivers in the area), about 36 km from Bologna. The capital is located at an altitude of 632 meters above sea level. The Municipality, particularly in its highest part, represents a historical tourist destination in the Bolognese mountains. In the early Middle Ages the towns of Brento and Montorio stood out in importance, whose castle marked the border between the Lombards and the Byzantines; nearby was the important parish church of San Pietro di Sambro. In the following centuries, and until its destruction in 1376, the castle of Montorio was an important center of power on the Apennine lands, a place of disputes between the families of da Monzone and Panico and home to a mountain vicariate. The castle of Montorio is one of the oldest in the province of Bologna, already mentioned in a document from 1170. The castle, surrounded by a small village, began to have news in the first half of the thirteenth century, and was part of the Bolognese territories. The owners of the castle were the counts of Panico, who owned other goods and rights in the area, and who were famous for their raids and their attacks on castles and neighboring countries, and in particular on the possessions of the lords of Monzuno: the word panic, with the meaning it has today derives from this family that sowed terror in the Bolognese countryside. Later the castle passed to the lords of Monzuno, and in 1315 the surrounding village was destroyed by the fire set by the Counts of Panico. In 1398 the castle was sold to the municipality of Bologna because, although the buildings around it were in ruins, it was in a fundamental position for the control of the whole area, and had a watchtower which constituted a very important observation point for the surrounding valleys, and which still retains traces of the original Guelph battlements and some crossbowmen. Later the castle was again rented to the lords of Monzuno, and in the 16th century it passed to the Castelli counts of Bologna, who donated it to the Military Order of Santo Stefano. It is currently owned by the Berti family, who bought it in the early 1800s. Even the church of Montorio, of course, is one of the oldest in the Bolognese mountain. There is news of its existence as a parish church dedicated to Saint Peter in 1110, and in the thirteenth century it had several plots in the area, and from many documents of the period it is evident that the archpriest of the church lent money with a certain regularity to the inhabitants of the surrounding area . During the 16th century, the church was joined to the Olivetan monastery of San Michele di Monghidoro: among the commanders we remember Giovanni della Casa, author of Etiquette, and later it passed, like the castle, to the Castelli counts of Bologna. Inside the church there is still a fourteenth-century bell and valuable sacred furnishings.