Monteveglio

Monteveglio was an important Matildean stronghold. Around the middle of the tenth century it became a fiefdom of the Countess of Canossa and was therefore involved in the struggle between the empire and the papacy since Matilde of Canossa sided alongside the Church and therefore against the emperor, Henry IV. Monteveglio victoriously resisted the imperial siege by forcing the emperor to retreat.

The monk Doninzone, cantor of the deeds of the great countess of Canossa, called Monteveglio "memorial over the centuries"; attribute immortalized in modern times in a plaque placed at the entrance of the Castle. Of this stronghold remain the entrance arch, once equipped with a drawbridge, and a massive crenellated tower.

Among the streets of the stone town stands the Abbey of Santa Maria. It was built in 1092 and in its Romanesque forms bears the marks of the various restorations made over the centuries. On the night between 24 and 25 March 1527, she was also subjected to a miraculous story when, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Annunciation of Mary, Monteveglio was saved from the siege of the Landsknechts from a snow storm and a sudden flood. The episode is remembered in a seventeenth-century plaque walled in the wall near the altar of the Abbey. In 1628 Pope Gregory XV granted the abbey title to the community. In 1961 the monks returned to the abbey for the first time since the end of the 18th century. Today it still houses a Franciscan community, which you can turn to for information and for any guided tours.