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The territory of Ozzano
Emilia situated between Bologna and Imola, has been inhabited since
ancient times. Palaeolithic hunters and gatherers
have left evidences of their stone tools on the hills on the edges of
the plain. Since the Neolithic Age and even more intensively since the
Bronze Age large villages settled in this territory. The villages were
organised communities that lived on land farming.
At the dawn of the I
millennium b. C. with the Iron Age, the Villanovian Civilisation marks
the first stage of the Etruscan period, characterised by large
colonisation of the lands connected with the near and powerful Felsina,
then Bologna. The Etruscans occupied also the territory of the future
Claterna as proved by some burial sites and other findings.
The arrival of the Romans in
the II century b. C after the final defeat of the Celts, that in the
IV century b. C had occupied also the area of Bologna marked the
beginning of a grand colonisation work: the centuriation and other
road works that have left indelible marks on the whole territory. In
the meantime Claterna was born, as a small village that gradually
developed in a municipium a
proper town with its territory and its own administrative autonomy (I
century b. C). Claterna had roads, public buildings, a forum, patrician houses and a suburb where artisans were processing
various products.
In late ancient times, also
caused by the political and economical crisis of the Roman Empire,
Claterna began its decline until its urban centre disappeared and, at
the same time, the population decreased noticeably.
The late Middle Ages the
settlement of Claterna had only a few scattered reference centres,
until the X century when the battlements of the population of this
territory were concentrated in few closed villages (as Settefonti, S.
Pietro and Castel de’ Britti), enclosed with fences, naturally
protected by rough ground or shielded by palisades.
Starting from the XII
century, with the establishment of the larger towns on the political
scene, the situation seemed radically changed: the territory of Ozzano
was supplanted by the new policy of Bologna. At the end of the XII
century Bologna built a series of free towns (where some tax
exemptions were granted) and strongholds to efficiently control and
manage its territory against the bordering towns in the context of the
fights between the Papacy and the Empire.
From the late XV century to
the thresholds of the Modern Age, the investments of the urban
developers turn solidly to the land. For this reason also Ozzano
experienced a “built landscape” dotted with patrician villas and
rural buildings that remained until a few decades ago.
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