Locality of Rocca S. Maria

On a limestone cliff, dominating the plain below, you can see one of the oldest and most beautiful churches in the mountains of Modena: Rocca S. Maria. This sacred building, built in local sandstone, has within large and imposing arches resting on four columns and four semi low columns and round. Its capitals, from the notch vigorous, are different in shape and composition. Its construction is due between the eighth and the middle of the ninth century. Outside the Pieve is placed a bell with the coat of arms of the Da Savignano: is dated 1370 and is the third oldest bell in the Province of Modena.
Rocca S. Maria, once called Castel Catoniano, we have news since the Bishop of Modena Viberto in 1038 sold it to Boniface III of Tuscany father of Matilda of Canossa. About a kilometer from Rocca S. Maria, a steep path leads to Sasso Witches: within a forest of oak stands a monolith of limestone containing marine fossils: a three hundred yards downstream, toward the first badlands, a rock wall encloses hundreds of other large bivalve fossils.
Also near Rocca S. Maria starting from Via Giardini (Montardone) and penetrating a steep road, after about a mile, we arrive at the Salsa Cintora. The Salsa is a cone height of about one meter, formed by the leakage of salt water, methane gas and mud clay.