An Italian village with an ancient heart, a green soul and an eye towards the future.
The history of the village
A small town with an ancient heart (the first news dates back to the 12th century) and a green soul, characterized by a partnership between history, culture, landscapes and everyday life. A place with a flavor of the past that overwhelms all the senses. The eyes are filled with uncontaminated glimpses that give strong inner emotions, silence fills the ears and the head leaving room for thoughts, the taste of the flavors of the past, healthy and tasty recipes that are so reminiscent of the home, the roughness of stones of the original houses and the paved streets that contrast with the soft grass of the meadows, to the voice of the chatter between acquaintances and friends ... the voice of a cordiality perhaps a little rustic but always ready to welcome you and make yourself known.
A vast environment compared to the small population that lives it. Space to breathe, space to practice sports, space to immerse yourself in chestnut, pine and beech woods, space to make unexpected encounters with the animals that populate these places, space to free the mind and soul.
Since the body also claims its part, here comes Acquaria, the cradle of mountain food and wine: crescentine, wild boar, truffle, mushrooms, pigeon, all delicacies that will never be forgotten if tried.
Via Castello
The town has maintained the characteristics of the ancient medieval village, perched around the remains of its castle and the church of San Giovanni. Of the ancient fortress today only some parts of the walls remain and one of the three towers, converted into a bell tower. Via Castello, with its courtyards, sculpted portals and loggias, is a significant example of a fortified road.
Via Vaccari
Historic street of the town mirrored in via Castello.
Borra House
It is the most important historic home in the country; the large sixteenth-seventeenth-century palace has an internal courtyard overlooked by the two residential wings with a large eaves projection supported by imposing beams. At the center of the roofs stands a dovecote tower. At every corner of the house there are some "marcolfe"(propitiatory masks) sculpted as a symbolic guard of the house and its inhabitants.
Corte and Villa Segantini
It is a nineteenth-century liberty-style rural villa. On the top of the roof there is a tower with a panoramic terrace.
Monastery
The monastery of Montecreto is an interesting building dating back to the sixteenth century, it is composed of a central nucleus that runs along the road, an internal garden and a circle of walls (which partially incorporate the walls of the medieval fortress), in the center of which there is an interesting "calvary" (cross with the symbol of the passion of Christ) protected within a large shrine.
Parish Church of San Giovanni Battista
On the hill where the medieval castle stood, it was built in the seventeenth century. the church dedicated to S. Giovanni Battista. Inside, worthy of note are the frescoed altar dating back to 1505, coming from the oratory of S. Rocco, a 13th century polychromed wooden crucifix, the baptismal font adorned with bas-reliefs from the 16th century. and the pulpit carved in stone.
Oratories
Trogolino Oratory: dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of Life, the Sanctuary contains a painting that represents the Madonna and Child and owes its strange name to a legend that tells how the painting was found under a drinking trough for animals , called "trough".
Stellaro Oratory: also known as "Church of the Sardinians", dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows (880 m). The building is located just upstream of the current square of the Montecreto ski lifts.
San Michele Oratory: we go up along the path on the promontory and here we are at the oratory of San Michele, surrounded by greenery, vegetation and accompanied by many butterflies. All with a beautiful view over the town of Montecreto.
Pigiolo Oratory: located in Via Vaccari. It has a side entrance consisting of a seventeenth-century trilithic portal. On the sides there are two single-lancet windows framed with squared sandstone blocks. On the back of the oratory there is a small bell gable, with a monolithic arch, raised on the top of the roof.
San Rocco Acquaria Oratory: characterized by the painting depicting the Madonna and Child with Saints Sebastian and Rocco, stolen in the night between 4 and 5 July 2002 and recovered and repositioned in 2013.
Rovinella Oratory: seventeenth-century oratory with a small bell tower. The façade is in plastered stone with a trilithic portal surmounted by a rose window. Note a dedication plaque from the seventeenth century.
San Geminiano Magrignana Church
The seventeenth-century church of San Geminiano Magrignana, in addition to the fine wooden ceiling and the slender bell tower, preserves two notable Romanesque sandstone columns (the only remains of the destroyed Romanesque parish church of San Geminiano).
Sant'Andrea Acquaria Church
The church of S.Andrea, heavily remodeled in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is a Romanesque construction which only partially preserves the apse part intact; inside, in addition to some interesting altarpieces, the famous Romanesque Christ of the Catalan school dating back to the end of the 13th century is preserved.
Chapel of Our Lady of the Magrignana Emigrants
Stone by stone in so many we have laid
to give place and form to memory
not to forget our history
to sigh ... I returned.
From "Fiabe di Roncovecchio" 2006
The house of the Stone Lions
Thematic museum housed in the basement of the Montecreto Town Hall. Three sections dedicated to: World War II, Postwar - archeology and local history. It houses the original stone lions of the Strettara bridge.
Archaeological site of Montecreto
The Archaeological Mines complex of Lastranera in Montecreto dates back to the Roman period. After centuries of oblivion, the tunnels were reused between the two world wars, becoming an important mining complex in which about forty miners, technicians, chemists and blacksmiths worked. Today the Galleries have been cleaned up and can be visited.
Parks
Parco dei Castagni: a unique wooded heritage. Here centuries-old chestnut trees, planted in the time of Matilde di Canossa, create an environment of great serenity and peace, to the point of being counted as one of the most beautiful and evocative green spaces in the Apennines. In the park there are the mill and the metato functioning for the chestnut processing path.
Vartara Park: located in the upper part of the town, it hosts centuries-old and majestic chestnut trees and a beautiful fountain with drinkable water.
Far West
All of a sudden, you will find yourself catapulted into a landscape that apparently has nothing to do with our Apennines: rocky ridges that rise from the ground to form a canyon that take us back to characteristic landscapes of the Far West. A splendid area to rest, admire the view and take the opportunity to maybe have a nice picnic.
Cervarola Mountain
At an altitude of 1600m, Monte Cervarola is a veritable panoramic terrace on Cimone and on the Apennine ridge.
The Via dei Monti - Solitary Pine, Fountain of lovers and fountain of the spouses
This path has the flavor of antiquity starting from the centuries-old stones that pave the Via dei Monti. There are several stages that characterize the route: starting from the Fountain of the Lovers continuing for that of the Spouses, arriving at the solitary pine from which it is possible to enjoy a splendid view of Montecreto.
Rovinella Lake
Rovinella Lake (1450 meters), formed in a natural basin and variously populated by various species of fauna and flora, including various buttercups such as the golden button and the Colombian pigamus, plumes and amphibians such as the Urodeles. The pond is commonly called Tritons' pond, due to the Crested Newts who live there.
The Marina
Marina is lost village in the wood, of incredible testimony of the mountain past.
Magrignana
The medieval village of Magrignana preserves notable examples of historical rural architecture (portals, coats of arms, sandstone tiles, oratories) which unequivocally mark its great historical importance between the Fourteenth and Sixteenth centuries.
Bridges
Strettara Bridge : the construction dates back to the first half of the eighteenth century. The construction entirely in sandstone preserves four interesting sandstone "mascheroni" (decorations depicting a human face), walled up on the bridge pillars as a symbolic protection of the bridge against the floods of the river itself. Copies of four sandstone lions are placed on the pillars at the entrances to the bridge.
Olina Bridge: slender with a single arch over the tumultuous waters of the Scoltenna, it was built in 1522 at the expense of the Montecuccolo family and the Este government. Overwhelmed and damaged several times by floods, in 1735 a smaller one was added to the original arch. The top is surmounted by a small shrine dated 1581 with a sacred image.
Picchiotto Bridge and Mill: located on the ancient communication route between Montecreto -. Magrignana and Riolunato, is a rare donkey's back bridge dating back to the fourteenth century and override the Rio Becco near the confluence with the Scoltenna river. The bridge has a stone arch with an unusual pointed arch shape, the only example among the bridges of the Frignano.
Strettara hydroelectric power plant
The construction was completed in 1919 by the Society Emiliana Esercizi Elettrici. The structure of the building is made up of blocks of sandstone worked on site that give the structure itself a characteristic appearance. The power plant consists of two turbines. The reservoir consists of a gravity dam and an adductor channel dug almost entirely into the rock.
Via Romea Germanica Imperiale
It connects Trento to Arezzo via Modena and is part of the Romee Germaniche system. It is a route heavily used in past centuries for military, religious and commercial needs. It is 550km long, 160 of which are in Emilia Romagna. There are two stages that involve our Apennines: Pavullo nel Frignano-Montecreto (21.4km) and Montecreto-Fiumalbo (19.4km).
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Fast connection
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Shuttle
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Convenience store
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Workstation accessible to disabled people
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Workstations
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Cleaning service
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Catering service