Santa Sofia

For centuries the river Bidente was a state border: on the left bank stood Santa Sofia, which belonged to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and on the right bank another village, Mortano, which belonged to the Papal State. People looked at each other from one bank to the other knowing they were in two different countries. Before that the territory had belonged to the archbishops of Ravenna, then from 1264 to the abbey of Sant'Ellero, then to Forlì, to the Malatesta of Sogliano and to the Ubertini, and from 1425 to the Republic of Florence. Even after the unification of Italy the bond with Florence remained: Santa Sofia was one of the twelve Romagna comuni which, though standing in Romagna, belonged to the province of Florence, inside the district of Rocca San Casciano. The two villages became one comune only in 1923, and three years later the district passed from Florence to Forlì.

Around Campigna are the forests the Grand Duchy kept as its timber reserve for the works of Florence cathedral and for the grand-ducal fleets; part of the integral nature reserve of Sasso Fratino lies in this comune, and it has been world heritage since 2017, within the site of the primeval beech forests of Europe. The twentieth century, instead, came twice. On 10 November 1918 an earthquake brought down the castle and many houses; then the war, with the Gothic Line running through here: in the territory of Santa Sofia the commander known as Libero set up the first partisan republic in Italy, the department of Corniolo, the largest and the longest-lasting, and the liberation came in October 1944 with the partisans, the Poles and the English. Today the village has a modern art gallery, the Vero Stoppioni, and along the river a series of contemporary sculptures.