Castelnovo Bariano

This comune was born in 1848 as a punishment: after the irredentist risings the Austrians divided the territory of Massa Superiore in two, and the part cut off from what is today Castelmassa became Castelnovo Bariano. It took its name from the largest of its villages, Castelnovo, which was called that after a castle wanted by Matilda of Canossa — who in 1109 gave it, with the whole fief, to the bishop of Ferrara — and which was demolished shortly after the unification of Italy. With the annexation to the Kingdom of Italy, in 1866, the name Bariano was added, probably because there were too many Castelnovos in the country.

Bariano carries the name of a Roman settlement, Vicus Varianus, which stood at the point where the fossa Filistina branched off the Po; and the whole territory is old, so much so that the pile-dwelling site found at Canàr is among the most important of the upper Polesine. But the Po has also taken things away: the church of San Bartolomeo of Bariano, which is named in Matilda's own deed of gift, stood on the flood plain and was swallowed by the river in the great flood of 1601. In the fifteenth century, during what they called the salt war, the castle here was fought over: the Venetians won, and then in the agreements gave it back to the Este with its lands. Culturally this has always been Ferrarese country — it belongs to what is called the Traspadana ferrarese — and the church of San Pietro, in the other village, has two twin bell towers flanking its facade.