San Giovanni in Persiceto

History

The most ancestral records claim the town was first populated by Gauls, but later occupied by the Romans. The area appears to have been depopulated after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The flooded plain remained uncultivated until the rule of the Exarchate of Ravenna, when lands were drained again. The Byzantines also built a defensive line in the territory against the Lombards, but c. 727, under King Liutprand, the Lombards overran the Castrum Persiceta. In the 728 Liutprand created the duchy of Persiceto. It is likely that the village formed as the traditional Borgo Rotondo (Round Village) under this new rule. With the fall of the Lombard Kingdom in 774 the early-medieval district of Persiceto (later San Giovanni in Persiceto), that stretched up to stream Samoggia, fell under the rule of the County of Modena, then the Abbey of Nonantola exercised its power on the territory, and since the 9th century it was handed over to the County of Bologna. Likely that around the half of that century the parish church of San Giovanni was built by the Bishops of Bologna. Also in the 9th century, the Abbots of Nonantola (western side) and Bishops of Bologna (eastern side) gave out the first "ad meliorandum" grants of swampy and untilled land to the inhabitants of Persiceto; these lands would form the future Partecipanza agraria (Agricultural Attendance). After a brief autonomy (11–12th century), San Giovanni in Persiceto again came under political control of Bologna, till at the beginning of the 16th century, it ultimately subjected to the Papal rule. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the 'castle' or 'land' of S. Giovanni in Persiceto was enlarged by a second circle of walls outside the Borgo Rotondo and by expanded settlements, surrounded, like the castle, by ditches, gates…

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  893
• Eurasian Kestrel

  Falco tinnunculus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  834
• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  785
• Gray/Purple Heron

  Ardea cinerea Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  768
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  699
• Great Egret

  Ardea alba Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  584
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  579
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  569

Most recent

• M 4.2 — 2026-03-26
  6 km NNW of Montale, Italy
• M 4.3 — 2026-01-13
  1 km NNW of Fornace Zarattini, Italy
• M 4.6 — 2026-01-13
  2 km N of Fornace Zarattini, Italy
• M 3 — 2024-05-22
  1 km N of Collecchio, Italy
• M 3.7 — 2024-02-17
  5 km SSE of Modigliana, Italy
• M 4.1 — 2024-02-17
  3 km SE of Basilicanova, Italy