Dovadola

Dovadola stands in the Montone valley, on a crag above the river, and the village probably grew there because two fords lay close together in the stream. Between the eighth and the ninth centuries the archbishop of Ravenna had the first fortress built on the rocky spur that overlooks the houses; the one belonging to the Guidi counts is recorded from 1021, and in 1255 count Ruggero and the commune placed themselves under Forlì's protection by an act of accomandigia. In the northern part of the old centre the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century walls survive, with three big round towers now half swallowed by the houses.

In 1405 the Guidi handed the fief over to Florence, and from then on Dovadola was Tuscan Romagna: it followed Florentine fortunes until 1860, remained in the province of Florence even under the Kingdom of Italy, and passed to Forlì only in 1923, together with almost every comune of that same area. At the hermitage of Montepaolo above the village Saint Anthony of Padua lived for nearly a year, from May 1221 to March 1222; in the church of Sant'Andrea, founded by Cluniac monks before the millennium, rests the blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porro, who was born here. The village is also known for its pewter work.