Le Rocche ritrovate. Storie di restauri: Riolo Terme e Monte Battaglia

In the border and transit area along the Apennine ridge between Romagna and Tuscany, encastellation has given rise to villages and towns since medieval times. Although by the end of the nineteenth century most of the defense systems had already been lost, there are numerous vestiges of that heritage that still endure today. Examples are the fortress of Riolo Terme, in the province of Ravenna; and that of Monte Battaglia, in Casola Valsenio, still employed as strategic nodes during World War II. In the first case it is a square defense tower built in 1388, in its original core, by the Bolognese government, with the purpose of providing shelter for the militia. In the 15th century the village of Riolo - which had become the new capital of the Senio valley - saw the fortification increased, with the addition of circular towers, a moat and a wall. Under the rule of the Riario-Sforza family, it reached its maximum military efficiency, then underwent significant transformations in the following centuries, until it housed municipal offices inside between the 19th and 20th centuries. The Longobard-era fortress, located on Mount Battaglia in Casola Valsenio, was similarly a key garrison of the Manfredi family to defend the valleys and the two rivers between Imola and Faenza. With an irregular plan that followed the contours of the land, the fortress included a watchtower about 15 meters high, used to monitor and coordinate the defense. Over the following centuries it fell into decay, later transforming into a memorial site dedicated to the fallen soldiers of World War II The paper aims to investigate the theme of military architecture as an object of study in the second half of the twentieth century, analyzing the projects and strategies of recovery and restoration curated by the Rava-Piersanti studio in the two cases of the Riolo and Monte Battaglia fortresses.