Meldola

The name Meldola appears around the year one thousand and probably comes from metula, the little column or posting station on the road that runs along the Bidente. Under the town, though, there is more than one town: a Roman aqueduct, which served the military port of Classe, still runs beneath the built-up area, and part of the historic centre sits on a large fortified villa of Theodoric's time, its rooms decorated with polychrome mosaics, destroyed by fire and then buried by a landslide.

The coat of arms tells the story of a single day: on the thirteenth of May 1335 the castle, besieged by Francesco Ordelaffi lord of Forlì, was relieved by Pietro Ginanni at the head of Sienese and Florentine troops. The tower between the crenellated walls is the town gate on the Forlì side, the red is the blood of the siege, the open gate is the relief, the golden lion was the crest Ginanni wore on his helmet, and the red lily recalls the Florentine help. In 1513 Leo X gave Meldola to Alberto Pio, count of Carpi, and the Ginanni descendants left for Ravenna. The town then lived on silk, and its market stayed open until the early twentieth century; the hospital founded in the sixteenth century now houses the Romagna institute for cancer research and treatment. The title of city came in 1862.