Spilamberto

Spilamberto was born as a military answer: in 1210 the Bolognese finished the castle of Piumazzo and the Modenese raised one of their own on the opposite bank of the Panaro, on uncultivated ground called Castiglione. The name, though, was older, and appears in a diploma of Conrad II of 1026, which names the tithe «de Fanano et Spinalamberti». Four years after the castle, in 1214, the quarrel between the bishop of Modena and the abbot of Nonantola was closed by cutting the village in two: lower Spilamberto to the bishop, upper Spilamberto to the abbot, each with its own church.

That division left two churches inside the same walls, and the town has not stopped growing since: the coat of arms granted in 1862 still carries the crown that then belonged to comuni of fewer than three thousand inhabitants, and a thorn bush, put there for the sound of the name. In the twentieth century Spilamberto paid dearly for the partisan struggle and received the war cross for military valour; today it is known for the June fair of San Giovanni and for traditional balsamic vinegar.