Romanesque Church of Rocca S.Maria
In the village of Rocca St. Maria, the Romanesque church was dedicated to St. Mary, cited by 971, is among the oldest and most striking ones. Since 1038 it belonged to the Marquis Boniface of Tuscany and then to his daughter Matilda of Canossa, who gave it in 1108 to the bishop of Modena. Now remains the central apse, with traces of hanging arches, which liturgical orientation east, toward the rising sun whose light is a metaphor of divine grace. The interior is simple and majestic, with three naves, has a charm collected and solemn, with wide arches that rest on four columns and half low and powerful. The beautiful capitals dating to the eleventh century, pre-Romanesque or early Romanesque, are decorated with intertwining plants, with leaves and stylized flowers, ribbons and scrolls, and are considered among the finest in northern Italy. The base of the second column has the right corner guards carved with animal heads – lion, goat, bear, griffon – symbolizing evil crushed by the Church. The pillar on the left of the main altar preserves an ancient tabernacle, carved and adorned with the symbols of a eucharistic chalice and stylized ears.
Castello di Monfestino
The town and its castle, that is a private property is visible only from the outside, it represents one of the most important evidence of the past. The oldest part of the fortress, which in ancient times was presented with a square tower surrounded by walls, was to be an outpost of the defensive barrier of Castro Feroniano that delayed for about two hundred years, the penetration of the Lombards in the mountain territory by the Church and Exarch of Ravenna. At the beginning of the century the castle was in deplorable conditions of degradation, but once purchased by the family of the Corni. In a few years, thanks to major restoration work, the castle was restored to its original splendor. Today, walking through a green path, it’s possible admire the round and massive walls, see the peaks of the Apennines, and in the dark of the night admire the illuminated plain below. Monfestino also has some old houses: in one of them there is a portal of valuable, by Mastro Antonio d’Ambrosino, famous artist of the sixteenth century.
Castello di Pompeano
Clinging to the top of a massive cliff ophiolite composed by serpentine rocks, the medieval fortress of Pompeano is reached by climbing a short flight that climbs on the boulder from the village below. Inside the fortified perimeter, which is accessed through a portal with pointed arche.. The building, characterized by two rows of windows sober trilithic probably made the thirteenth century and a questionable portico in neo-gothic style dating back to the nineteenth century, facing the Church of San Geminiano. Inside the city walls are the lookout tower with a square built on the highest point of the plateau, the bell tower built in the eighteenth century near the entrance and isolated from the church, as well as a circular tower dovecote.
The Tower of the Bastiglia
Symbol of the city of Serramazzoni the tower of the Bastiglia was a part of a fortress of the thirteenth century. Erected for the purpose of sighting, marked for a long time the strategic value of Ligorzano, especially from eleventh to the thirteenth century. Near the tower, apartment buildings have portals in stone carved lintels worked with well made and engraved with the date 1578. It is located not far from Fontanina of Ligorzano popular destination for every rider and also the writer Alfredo Panzini that there stopped to quench his thirst.