History of Romagna
A journey of 8,000 years, from the first farming villages to today's Riviera. Romagna has never had an official border: by tradition it runs from the Sillaro to the Valmarecchia and from the Reno to the ridge of the Apennines. Its name comes from Romania, the land that stayed with the "Romans" of Byzantium when the rest of the North belonged to the Lombards.
The first traces about 800,000 years ago
Long before the villages, groups of hunters were already crossing the hills of Forlì.
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800,000 years ago
Monte Poggiolo
At Ca' Belvedere di Monte Poggiolo, near Castrocaro, groups of hunters chipped thousands of flint pebbles: it is one of the oldest human traces in Europe.
Neolithic and metal ages 6000 - 900 BC
Farming and herding arrive: people stop moving around and build the first houses.
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6000 BC
The first farmers
People grow cereals, raise sheep and oxen, and the first permanent villages appear on the plain and the low hills.
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about 5000 BC
The village of Lugo
At the Fornace Gattelli in Lugo archaeologists found an Early Neolithic village, with a ditch, a palisade and a house of 10 by 7 metres with its hearth and oven.
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3500 BC
Copper Age
The first metal objects appear next to polished stone; communities move along the valleys of the Apennine rivers.
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1600 BC
Bronze Age
Villages such as the one at Solarolo, near Faenza, and on Monte Castellaccio in Imola: wooden houses, pottery and trade with the Po plain.
Villanovans, Etruscans, Umbrians and Celts 900 - 268 BC
Before Rome, Romagna is a crossroads of peoples, languages and trade, from Baltic amber to Greek vases.
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9th c. BC
Verucchio
On the crag above the Marecchia a very rich Villanovan centre flourishes: tombs of "princes", worked Baltic amber and the famous carved wooden throne.
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6th c. BC
Etruscans and Umbrians
The Etruscans trade with the Greeks from the port of Spina, in the Po delta; the Umbrians live on the hills of the Savio, around Sarsina.
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4th c. BC
The Celts arrive
Gallic tribes come down from the Alps: the Senones settle between Rimini and the Marche, the Lingones towards Ravenna.
Roman Romagna 268 BC - AD 402
Rome arrives with colonies and roads: the Via Emilia draws the Romagna we still know today.
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268 BC
Ariminum is born
Rome founds the colony of Rimini, a bridgehead towards the Po plain. Two years later the Umbrians of Sarsina surrender too.
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250 BC
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus, the greatest comic playwright of ancient Rome, is born in Sarsina.
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220 BC
Via Flaminia
The consular road links Rome to Rimini across the Apennines.
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187 BC
Via Emilia
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus lays out the straight road from Rimini to Piacenza. Along it grow Caesena, Forum Popili, Forum Livii, Faventia and Forum Cornelii: Cesena, Forlimpopoli, Forlì, Faenza and Imola.
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49 BC
The Rubicon
Julius Caesar crosses the little river that marks the border of Roman Italy: "the die is cast". The civil war begins.
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27 BC
The Arch of Augustus
Rimini honours Augustus with the arch that opens the town; the Bridge of Tiberius over the Marecchia will be finished in AD 21 and is still in use today.
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1st c. AD
The fleet at Classe
Augustus chooses the port of Classe, near Ravenna, as the base of the fleet that controls the Adriatic and the East.
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301
San Marino
According to tradition the stonemason Marinus founds a community on Mount Titano: it will become the oldest republic in the world.
Ravenna the capital 402 - 751
For three and a half centuries Ravenna is at the centre of the world: emperors, Gothic kings and Byzantine exarchs fill it with mosaics.
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402
Capital of the Empire
Emperor Honorius moves the court of the Western Roman Empire to Ravenna, protected by marshes and open to the sea.
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425 - 450
Galla Placidia
Honorius's sister rules for her young son and leaves the mausoleum with its starry mosaic sky.
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476
The Western Empire ends
Odoacer deposes the last emperor, the young Romulus Augustulus: for the school books, antiquity ends here.
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493
Theoderic
The king of the Ostrogoths rules Italy from Ravenna: Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, the Arian Baptistery and his mausoleum, with a dome made from a single block of stone.
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540
The Byzantines arrive
General Belisarius takes Ravenna for Emperor Justinian. San Vitale is consecrated in 547 and Sant'Apollinare in Classe in 549.
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6th - 8th c.
Exarchate and Romania
Ravenna becomes the seat of the Exarch, the Byzantine governor. The land that stayed "Roman" is called Romania, as opposed to the Langobardia of the Lombards: this is where the name Romagna comes from.
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751
The Lombards
The Lombard king Aistulf takes Ravenna: the Exarchate ends.
Communes, lords and Dante 756 - 1500
On paper Romagna belongs to the Pope, in practice the great families rule from their fortresses. Dante knows it well.
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756
The Pope's lands
With the donation of Pepin the Short, king of the Franks, Romagna passes, at least on paper, to the Church of Rome.
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11th - 12th c.
The communes are born
Rimini, Ravenna, Faenza, Forlì, Cesena and Imola govern themselves, between Guelphs and Ghibellines and local rivalries.
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1278
Papal Romagna
Emperor Rudolf of Habsburg officially recognises Romagna as the Pope's. In practice, though, the great families are in charge.
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13th - 15th c.
The lordships
The Malatesta in Rimini and Cesena, the da Polenta in Ravenna, the Ordelaffi in Forlì, the Manfredi in Faenza, the Alidosi in Imola: fortresses, courts and conspiracies.
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about 1285
Paolo and Francesca
Francesca da Polenta and Paolo Malatesta are killed, perhaps in Gradara, perhaps in Rimini: Dante places them in Canto V of the Inferno.
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1321
Dante in Ravenna
Exiled from Florence, Dante finishes the Comedy as the guest of Guido Novello da Polenta, dies in Ravenna and is buried here. His is the line: "Romagna is not, and never was, without war in the hearts of its tyrants".
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1357
Cardinal Albornoz
The Egidian Constitutions give the Pope the first common laws for the whole region; fortresses such as the one in Forlimpopoli are built.
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1441
Venice in Ravenna
The Serenissima rules Ravenna for almost seventy years and builds the Rocca Brancaleone there.
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1450 - 1454
The Renaissance
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta has Leon Battista Alberti redesign the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini; in Cesena Malatesta Novello opens the Biblioteca Malatestiana, now on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.
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15th - 16th c.
The majolica of Faenza
Faenza's workshops take glazed pottery all over Europe, so much so that in French it will be called "faïence".
From the Borgias to papal rule 1499 - 1796
Cesare Borgia sweeps the lords away, then for three centuries Romagna is a quiet province of the Papal States.
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1499 - 1500
Caterina Sforza
The lady of Imola and Forlì holds out in the Rocca di Ravaldino, but has to surrender to Cesare Borgia.
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1501
Duke of Romagna
Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, takes Faenza and becomes Duke of Romagna. Machiavelli watches him closely and will make him the model for The Prince.
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1509
The Pope takes it all back
After Venice's defeat at Agnadello, Pope Julius II returns to Ravenna, Cervia, Rimini and Faenza.
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1512
The Battle of Ravenna
On 11 April the French and the Spanish clash at the gates of the city: the French win, but their young commander Gaston de Foix is killed.
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1500 - 1796
The Legations
For almost three centuries Romagna is governed by a cardinal legate living in Ravenna: farmland, sharecropping, salt pans and marshes.
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1697
New Cervia
Old Cervia, unhealthy in the middle of the salt pans, is abandoned: a new town is built near the sea, with its great salt warehouses.
Napoleon and the Risorgimento 1796 - 1861
With the French come new ideas; when the Pope returns, Romagna becomes a land of patriots and conspirators.
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1797
The Battle of the Senio
On 2 February the French defeat the Pope's troops on the Senio, between Castel Bolognese and Faenza. Romagna joins the Cisalpine Republic and later Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy.
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1815
The Pope returns
The Congress of Vienna hands Romagna back to the Papal States. Secret societies spring up: Carbonari and followers of Mazzini.
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1849
The death of Anita
Hunted by the Austrians after the fall of the Roman Republic, Garibaldi flees through the lagoons: Anita dies on 4 August at the Guiccioli farm in Mandriole. The "trafila", a chain of Romagnol patriots, brings him to safety.
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1851
Il Passatore
Stefano Pelloni, the brigand from Boncellino di Bagnacavallo famous for his raid on the theatre of Forlimpopoli, is killed at 26. He becomes a legend.
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1859 - 1860
Italy
Once the Austrians have left, Romagna rises against the Pope; with the plebiscite of March 1860 it joins the Kingdom of Sardinia, and in 1861 the Kingdom of Italy is born.
From the 1800s to the Great War 1843 - 1918
The Riviera is born, the cooperatives are born: today's Romagna starts here, between sea bathing, poetry and politics.
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1843
The first sea baths
The Stabilimento dei Bagni Marittimi opens in Rimini: little by little, the story of the Riviera begins.
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1855
Giovanni Pascoli
He is born in San Mauro: the murder of his father in 1867 will mark all his poetry, starting with La cavallina storna.
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1882
Andrea Costa
The man from Imola is the first socialist elected to the Italian Parliament. Romagna is a land of republicans, socialists and anarchists.
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1883
The cooperatives
Nullo Baldini's Association of farm labourers is founded in Ravenna, one of the first large workers' cooperatives: its members drain the marshes by hand.
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1891
Pellegrino Artusi
The gastronome from Forlimpopoli publishes La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene, the book that unites Italy at the table.
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1908
The ceramics museum
The International Museum of Ceramics is founded in Faenza, today one of the largest in the world.
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1914
Red Week
In June strikes and popular uprisings set Romagna and the Marche alight: for a few days there is talk of revolution.
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1918
Francesco Baracca
The flying ace from Lugo dies on the Montello. The prancing horse on his plane will go to Enzo Ferrari in 1923.
Fascism, war and Liberation 1922 - 1945
The dictator is from Romagna, and the war in Romagna is one of the hardest in Italy: the front stops here for eight months.
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1922 - 1943
The Fascist years
Benito Mussolini, born in Predappio in 1883, leads the regime. Predappio is rebuilt as a new town; the plains are drained and holiday camps are built by the sea.
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1944
The Gothic Line
From August the Allies attack the German defences in the Apennines and towards Rimini, in one of the hardest battles of the Italian campaign. Rimini is liberated on 21 September, almost entirely destroyed.
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Oct - Dec 1944
Liberation, town by town
Cesena on 20 October, Forlì on 9 November, Ravenna on 4 December with the partisans of Arrigo Boldrini "Bulow", Faenza on 17 December with the New Zealand soldiers.
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April 1945
The Senio front
After a winter stuck on the river, the spring offensive liberates Lugo, the Bassa Romagna and finally Imola, on 14 April.
Republic, Riviera and prosperity 1946 - 1999
From the ruins to the boom: Romagna invents the mass holiday and becomes one of the richest areas of Italy.
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1946
The Republic
In the referendum of 2 June Romagna, a republican land since forever, votes overwhelmingly for the Republic.
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1950s
Gas, chemicals and engines
Natural gas is found at Ravenna and the chemical plants and industrial port are built; in 1953 the Imola racetrack opens.
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1954
Romagna mia
Secondo Casadei writes the song that will become the unofficial anthem of Romagna and of liscio dance music.
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1960s
The Riviera boom
Family-run guesthouses, beach umbrellas and dance halls: from Cervia to Cattolica the coast becomes the holiday of the Italians and of German tourists.
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1970
The Region
The Emilia-Romagna Region is created: Romagna has no administrative border of its own, but remains a land with its own language, food and character.
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1973
Amarcord
Federico Fellini, from Rimini, tells the story of his town in the film that will win the Oscar.
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1992
The Province of Rimini
Rimini splits from Forlì and becomes a province: today the provinces of Romagna are Ravenna, Forlì-Cesena and Rimini.
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1996
Ravenna, UNESCO heritage
The eight Early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Ravenna become World Heritage.
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1998
Marco Pantani
The cyclist from Cesenatico wins the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year.
Today 2000 - today
A land that welcomes millions of visitors every year and, after the floods, has learned once again how to start over.
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2009
The Valmarecchia returns to Romagna
Seven towns of the upper valley, including San Leo, Pennabilli and Novafeltria, move from the Marche to the province of Rimini; in 2021 Montecopiolo and Sassofeltrio follow.
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2021
Seven hundred years of Dante
Ravenna remembers the poet, 700 years after his death, with a year of events around his tomb.
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May 2023
The flood
Exceptional rain makes dozens of rivers burst their banks: Faenza, Lugo, Cesena, Forlì and the hills end up under water and landslides. New floods follow in September and October 2024.
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2024
The Tour de France in Romagna
The first stage of the Tour finishes in Rimini and the second starts from Cesenatico, in memory of Pantani.
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today
Romagna today
Sea, hills, villages, food and engines: a land of just over a million people that welcomes millions of tourists every year and keeps rebuilding and starting over.
Facts checked on 19 October 2026 on Wikipedia and on the sources of the excavations and museums. The dates of prehistory are approximate. To find out more: Famous people · Monuments · Castles · Curiosities and legends · Dialects
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From the mosaics of Ravenna to the Arch of Augustus in Rimini, from Caterina Sforza's fortress to the hills of the Gothic Line: Romagna Transfer takes you there with a driver.