○ 1100 AD : FROM MONS GOTHORUM TO MONGHIDORO
§ On the origin of Monghidoro §
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, around the 7th, 8th century AD, hordes of barbarian peoples (primarily Ostrogoths and Langobards) and Byzantine armies, no less ferocious in their attempt to reunify the Empire, crossed the Italian peninsula at will.
According to hypothesis advanced by many modern historians, it was around this time that a detachment of Goths settled in this strategic place on the bolognese Apennine ridge, giving life to a small military and agricultural colony and allowing the control of the high valleys of the torrents Savena and Idice (no man's land between the possessions of the exarchate of Ravenna and the Lombards).
This place was called Mons Gothorum (Mountain of Goths) from which it is assumed that the toponyms "Mongodori" (1100 ca) and the current "Monghidoro" derives. By a bizarre historical quirk, the town was an important part of the Central Front defences of the Gotenstellung or "Gothic line", built in 1944 by Field Marshal Kesserling to stop the Allied advance toward northern Italy, Bologna and the Po Valley beyond.
- Monghidoro today, corner of Via Garibaldi and Via Vittorio Emanuele II -
The first historically documented trace of the town is an administrative act of 1145: where it mentions the "Curia Mongodori".
Nearly a century later, in 1232 another document cites a Plebs Mongodori, consisting of a Church surrounded by a small cluster of homes built where today the cemetery of Monghidoro is situated.
It is certain that the area was part of a vast territory ranging from Barberino di Mugello to Pianoro, on the outskits of Bologna and belonged to a noble family of Lombard origin, the Ubaldini of Mugello.
- Coat of arms of the Ubaldini family; marble gravestone; bottega fiorentina, sec. XIV -
Toward the end of the 12th century the Comune of Bologna began to subdue the mountain areas. To facilitate connection with Florence it began the construction of a road on the right side of the river Savena, that lead to Monghidoro and thence to the Mugello.
In 1246, to provide security along this road, the municipality of Bologna built a castrum, a fortified village on a hill overlooking the parish of Monghidoro. Thus was born Scaricalasino.
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