The oldest document naming this place is a parchment of the first of February 919, by which the archbishop of Ravenna granted certain lands lying «in the estates of Cotoniola». As to where that name comes from, the hypotheses converge on a fruit: the quince, which took particularly well here, so much so that the comune adopted it as its emblem. But there is a second road leading to the same fruit: in 1274 the men of Forlì built a new fort here at Faenza's request, and recruited the troop by taking men of Forlì «drawn for the most part from the Borgo de Cotogni» — and for this the castle was called Cotogniola. On the coat of arms the quince tree is a canting device, and it was also the family arms of Muzio Attendolo Sforza, who was born here; the lion was added by imperial concession, and the crest holds a gold ring with a pointed blue diamond, given by marquis Niccolò the Third d'Este for the merits the captain earned in his service.
That captain made his career: he obtained for his native town the title of county, and at his death his goods passed to his son Francesco Sforza, who would become duke of Milan — so the county of Cotignola ended up among the Milanese prince's possessions, and later the Sforza gave it the title of city as well. Then, once the Sforza had been driven out by the French, something singular happened: in 1502 the king of France, who had sponsored the marriage between Lucrezia Borgia and duke Alfonso d'Este, gave Cotignola to the Este as a reward for having married into the Borgia. The town changed master as a wedding present. Four and a half centuries later, in the winter of 1944, the front stopped for six months on the river Senio, and the Allied bombing razed eighty per cent of the buildings: the civilian dead were two hundred and seventy out of about seven thousand inhabitants. What stopped the bombing, in April 1945, was two men: Leno Casadio, a partisan leader, and don Stefano Casadio, a priest and military chaplain, who crossed the Senio together, raised a white flag and reached the Allied camp alone to explain that the few Germans left had already been taken prisoner by the partisans. The town was then rebuilt keeping the street plan it had before.
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📅 Every year, on 26 December; mid-Lent brings the Segavecchia, since 1451
Cotignola celebrates Saint Stephen on 26 December, in the church dedicated to him. At mid-Lent, the Segavecchia is held, one of the oldest feasts in Romagna: celebrated since 1451, with the masked procession of the Old Woman and allegorical floats through the town's streets.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Cotignola, but an easy day trip away.
