Casalfiumanese

Casalfiumanese is an Italian town of 3,460 inhabitants in the metropolitan city of Bologna in Emilia Romagna. It is part of the New District of Imola. It rises along the Santerno Valley in an elevated area favorable to fruit crops. In the early middle Ages there was a cluster of houses along the Salato River a left tributary of the Santerno, called Rivo Salso. Between the 10th and 11th centuries the inhabitants decided to build a castrum, or a walled fortress. They chose a hill a few km further south, still on the left of the Santerno. Subsequently citizens became a free municipality.

The name Castrum Casale appears in three papal bulls of the 12th century. The castle had a rectangular shape with a single entrance door with a drawbridge facing east. Subsequently a tower with a public clock was erected, symbol of the town and still represented in the municipal coat of arms. In the 13th century the castle of Casale was part of the countryside of the city of Imola. In the following century, between 1265 and 1278, Imola and its countryside were subjected to the city of Bologna.