Castel del Rio, Ponte e Palazzo Alidosi

Castel del Rio is a village in the Santerno valley, in the Apennines above Imola. For four centuries, from the thirteenth to the seventeenth, it was governed by the Alidosi, a family who were also lords of Imola. Their name remains on the village's two monuments.

The Ponte Alidosi spans the Santerno with a single humpback arch, very high, made of stone. It was commissioned by Obizzo Alidosi in 1499 from the Imola master builder Andrea Guerrieri, for 500 gold scudi: for centuries it was the way to cross the valley and today it is the symbol of the village.

The Palazzo Alidosi dates from the sixteenth century and is attributed to Francesco da Sangallo. It is a fortress palace with two large lance-point bastions, designed to withstand artillery: there were meant to be four, but the work was never finished. Inside remains the little courtyard of the fountains, with columns and fountains of sandstone and the family's coats of arms.

Today the palace houses the town hall and hosts the Museum of War and the Gothic Line, which tells the story of the front that crossed these mountains in 1944 and 1945, and the Chestnut Museum. On the four Sundays of October the Sagra del Marrone, founded in 1956, celebrates the Castel del Rio IGP chestnut.