○ 1511-1515 AD: THE VISITS OF POPE LEO X
§ On the relations between Pope Leo X and the soldier Armaciotto §
In Monghidoro there is a little square dedicated to Pope Leo X, who stayed in Scaricalasino several times as a guest of the condottiero Captain, Armaciotto de' Ramazzotti, who fought numerous wars for both the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
The friendship between Armaciotto de’ Ramazzotti, captain borned in this country, and the cardinal of Florence Giovanni de’ Medici, future pope Leo X, was a crucial event for the history of this village.
Since 1505 Armaciotto worked with pope Julius II to the conquest of Bologna and the provinces of Romagna.
In October of 1511 the pope entrusted to Giovanni dei Medici the role of papal legate for the Romagna, based in Bologna. Crossing the Apennines, the cardinal stopped at Scaricalasino where he was a guest in the palace that Armaciotto had built at the northern entrance of the village (the current Vicolo dell’Antico Angelo). On that occasion, between the warrior and the cardinal borned a friendship destined to last forever.
In April 1512, Armaciotto paid the French to free Giovanni de’ Medici, captured during the battle of Ravenna. In September, the commander occupied Florence and returned the city to the Medici’s family.
In 1513 Armaciotto began the construction, to one side of his palace, of a church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, that the man of arms considered his protector.
On December 6, 1515 Giovanni de’ Medici, who two years earlier had been elected pope, returned to Scaricalasino. The chronicles of the reminder of the arrival of Leo X, along with four cardinals and an army: four hundred knights and other four hundred prelates, soldiers and servants. The pope went to Bologna to sign a peace agreement with the French king Francis I. Armaciotto hosted the pope for two days in his palace, while the Hospital and the population was reserved the burden of hosting horses and troops.
In the following years, Armaciotto, along with his army of mountaineers, was the most valiant defender of the interests of the State of the Church in Bologna and Romagna. For these services he was rewarded by Leo X with honorary titles and a vast domain in the countryside between Bologna, Imola and Scaricalasino.
- Monghidoro, glimpse of Leo X Square -
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