From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Forlì
listen
(help·info) (Latin: Forum Livii) is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna,
Italy, famed as the birthplace of the great painter Melozzo da
Forlì, of the humanist historian Flavio Biondo, of
the famous physicians Geronimo
Mercuriali and Giovanni Battista
Morgagni.
The Fascist leader Benito Mussolini was born near Forlì
as were his daughter Edda and his son Romano.
Forlì is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena.
History
Ancient
era
The surroundings of Forlì have been inhabited since the Paleolithic: a site,
Ca' Belvedere of Monte Poggiolo, has revealed thousands
of chipped flints in strata dated 800,000 years before present,
which indicates a flint-knapping industry producing sharp-edged
tools in a pre-Acheulean
phase of the Paleolithic [1].
According to legend, the city of Forlì was founded in 188 BC by
the consul Gaius Livius Salinator, who
confronted Hasdrubal Barca and vanquished him at the
banks of the Metaurus River (207 BC). The old city was
destroyed in 88 BC during the civil wars of Gaius Marius and Sulla and rebuilt by the
praetor Livius Clodius afterwards. Presumably, Forum Livii
was a middle-sized city producing agricultural products, which
reached market via the Via Aemilia.
Middle
Ages
After the collapse of the West, the city formed part of the
realms of Odoacer and of the
Ostrogoth kingdom before becoming an
outlier of the Byzantine power of the Exarchate
of Ravenna.
Saint Mercurialis (San Mercuriale) (d. 406)
was a bishop of the city, after whom one of its main churches is
dedicated.
In the time of the Lombards, the city was contested and was
repeatedly retaken by Lombard forces, in 665, 728, 742. It was
finally incorporated with the Papal States in 757, as part of the Donation of
Pepin.
By the 9th century, but perhaps a century earlier, the comune
had wrested control from its bishops and was established as one of
the independent Italian city-states, the communes that
signalled the first revival of urban life in Italy. Forlì became a
republic for the first time in 889.
In the medieval struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Forlì
sided with the Ghibelline factions, partly as a means of preserving
its independence. It supported all the Holy Roman Emperors in their
adventures in Italy. Their fiercest rivals were Faenza and Bologna. During these centuries, popes many
times tried to resume the control of Forlì, sometimes by violence
sometimes by allurements.
More essentially local competition was involved in loyalties: in
1241, during Frederick II's
struggles with Pope Gregory IX the people of Forlì
offered their loyal support to Frederick II during the capture of
the rival city, Faenza, and,
as a sign of gratitude, they were granted an augmentation of the
communal coat-of-arms with the Hohenstaufen eagle,
together with other privileges. With the collapse of Hohenstaufen
power in 1257, Guido I da Montefeltro the
staunchest imperial lieutenant, was forced to take refuge in Forlì,
the only remaining Ghibelline stronghold in Italy. He accepted the
position of capitano del popolo and gained for Forlì some
notable victories: against the Bolognesi at the Ponte di San Procolo, on June
15, 1275; against a Guelph allied force, including Florentine troops, at Civitella on November 14,
1276; and at Forlì itself against a powerful French contingent sent
by Pope Martin
IV, on May 15, 1282, in a battle cited by Dante Alighieri
(who was hosted in the city in 1303 by Scarpetta Ordelaffi III). In
1282, Forlì's forces were led by Guido da Montefeltro. The famous
astrologer Guido Bonatti
(advisor of Emperor Frederick
II, too) was one of his advisors.
The following year the exhausted city's Senate was forced to
accede to papal power and asked Guido to take his leave. The
commune soon submitted to a local condottiere rather
than accept a representative of direct papal control, and Simone
Mestaguerra had himself proclaimed Lord of Forlì. He
did not succeed in leaving the new signory peacefully to an heir,
however, and Forlì passed to Maghinardo
Pagano, then to Uguccione della Faggiuola
(1297), and to others, until in 1302 the Ordelaffi came into
power.
Local factions with papal support ousted the family several
times, in 1327–1329 and again in 1359–1375, and at other turns of
events the bishops were expelled by the Ordelaffi. In that period,
the famous musician Ugolino da Orvieto, too, had to escape from
Forlì, and went in Ferrara.
Until the Renaissance the Ordelaffi strived to maintain the
possession of the city and its countryside, especially against
Papal attempts to assert back their authority. Often civil wars
between members of the family occurred. Sometimes they also fought
as condottieri for
other states to earn themselves money to protect or embellish
Forlì.
In the Middle Ages, Forlì had an important community of Jews: they had a
school in the 13th century; and, in 1418, a famous synod convoked
by the Jews in Forlì, sent a deputation with costly gifts to the
new pope, Martin
V, praying him to abolish the oppressive laws promulgated by Avignon Pope
Benedict XIII and to grant the Jews those privileges which had
been accorded them under previous popes. The deputation succeeded
in its mission.
Modern
age
The most renowned of the Ordelaffi was Pino III,
who held the Signiory of Forlì from 1466 to 1480. Pino was a
ruthless lord; nevertheless he enriched the city with new walls and
buildings and was a sponsor of the arts. When he died aged just 40,
perhaps by poisoning, the situation of Forlì was weakened as
factions of Ordelaffi fought one another, until Pope Sixtus IV
claimed the signory for his nephew Gerolamo Riario.
Riario was married to Caterina Sforza, the indomitable
Lady of Forlì whose name is associated with the city's
last independent history. Forlì was seized in 1488 by Visconti
and in 1499 by Cesare Borgia, after whose death it
became more directly subject to the pope than ever been before
(apart from an ephemeral return of Ordelaffi in 1503-1504).
In the 16th century the most notable among Forlì's bishops was
Alexander De Franciscis, a converted Jew, who wrote Hebrew notes on
Genesis and
Exodus, with
special reference to the text of the Vulgate; and a significant theological work,
De Tempore et de Sanctis. His Jewish name was Elisha de
Roma. After his baptism he entered the order of the Dominican friars, in which he distinguished
himself as an orator. Pope Clement VIII appointed him
proctor, then vicar-general, and, finally, bishop of Forlì, which
office he held from 1594 to 1597. The latter part of his life he
spent as a layman in Rome.
The disappearance of Forlì from wider history ended in June
1796, when the Jacobine French troops entered the city, while Napoleon
passed through on February 7, 1797.
In the 19th century Forlì took part in the struggle for Italian
unification: Piero Maroncelli and Aurelio Saffi were born in Forlì.
On April 16, 1988, in Forlì, Red Brigades killed Italian senator
Roberto Ruffilli, an advisor of Prime Minister Ciriaco de
Mita. In 1989 the second Faculty of Economics, now part of the
Forlì Branch of
the University of Bologna, was named in his honour.
Main
sights
- Piazza Aurelio
Saffi
- The Abbey of San
Mercuriale
- The Palazzo Comunale, built around the year 1000 over
a pre-existing tower. In 1412, enlarged, it became the residence of
the Ordelaffi family. The current façade was redesigned in the 19th
century. It contains frescoes by Francesco Menzocchi, Felice Giani,
Girolamo Reggiani and Paolo Agelli.
- Palazzo del Podestà
- Palazzo Albertini
- Palazzo Paolucci-Piazza (17th century)
- Monte di Pietà (16th century)
- Palazzo Gaddi, with fine frescoes by Felice Giani and the
adjoining Palazzo
Sangiorgi
- The Castle of Ravaldino, built by Ordelaffis and famous for
the fighting between Caterina Sforza, as defender, and Cesare Borgia,
attacking.
- Palazzo
Hercolani
- The Dominican
Church of San Giacomo Apostolo better known as Church of San
Domenico
- Dino Bandini Collection, a museum for the Bandini
sports cars - see Bandini Automobili
Green
areas and parks
Theatres
Gastronomy
Famous
people
- See also: People from Forlì
The most famous painter of the comune was Melozzo da Forlì, who worked in Rome and other Italian cities during the brief years of the High
Renaissance. Other famous forlivese painters were: Ansuino da
Forlì, Marco Palmezzano, Francesco
Menzocchi, Livio
Agresti. Together, they formed the Forlì painting school. Carlo Cignani was
not born in Forlì, but painted important works there.
Other famous forlivese people are:
In the period from between 1265 and 1 May 1315, Peregrino Laziosi lived in Forlì.
Frazioni
Bagnolo, Barisano, Borgo Sisa, Branzolino, Carpena, Carpinello,
Casemurate, Caserma, Castiglione, Ca'Ossi, Cava, Collina, Coriano,
Durazzanino, Forniolo, Grisignano, Ladino, Magliano, Malmissole,
Massa, Ospedaletto, Para, Pescaccia, Petrignone, Pianta, Pieve
Acquedotto, Pievequinta, Poggio, Ponte Vico, Quattro, Ravaldino in
Monte, Romiti, Roncadello, Ronco, Rotta, Rovere, San Giorgio, San
Leonardo in Schiova, San Lorenzo in Noceto, San Martino in Strada,
San Martino in Villafranca, San Tomé, San Varano, Vecchiazzano,
Villa Rovere, Villa Selva, Villafranca di Forlì, Villagrappa,
Villanova.
Twin
cities
Aveiro, Portugal
Bourges, France
Chichester, United
Kingdom
Elektrenai, Lithuania
Karlsruhe, Germany
Peterborough, United
Kingdom
Płock, Poland
Skövde, Sweden
Szolnok, Hungary
Bratislava, Slovakia
External
links