THE ROMAN ORIGIN, THE RUBICON AND JULIUS CAESAR

Sogliano al Rubicone has been inhabited since ancient times; sporadic finds testify to the presence of man in this area since the terminal phase of the Eneolithic (2500-1800 B.C.), while more substantial settlements are identified in the final phase of the Bronze Age (1100 – 900 B.C.). The town’s original toponym seems to derive from that of “Fundus Solliani,” the original name of the territory on which the settlement stands, in Roman times the property of the Rimini family Sulia or Silla. The Rubicon was known from the time of the Punic Wars as the northeastern border between the Roman Republic and Cisalpine Gaul. To cross this river armed and at the head of an army was to “declare war” on the Roman Republic. NeI 49 BC. Gaius Julius Caesar uttered the phrase consigned to history, “Alea iacta est” (“the datum is drawn”) and crossed the Rubicon with his militia in tow, thus giving birth to the Roman Empire.

FROM THE ROMANS TO THE MALATESTA

After the end of the Eastern Roman Empire, Sogliano came to be part of the possessions of the Church until the 11th century,a period in which, like many Italian towns, it became a free commune and was affected by the phenomenon of encastellation. In the following centuries, from about 1200 to 1640, the history of the village is linked to the Malatesta family. In 1312, the Malatesta of Rimini, on the Guelph side, went to war with the Malatesta of Sogliano, on the Ghibelline side, and destroyed the castle, killing many of the inhabitants. The Malatesta dominion of Sogliano ended in 1640, when Sogliano passed to the Papal States.

LEONARDO DA VINCI’S JOURNEY IN ROMAGNA

In the summer of 1502, much of Romagna was subjugated to Cesare Borgia, and Leonardo da Vinci stayed for a long period in Romagna.

Sogliano remembers the passage in the hills of Romagna of the illustrious genius and artist through the “Leonardo Da Vinci and Romagna” Museum and the reproduction inside the San Donato Park (Vignola area) of the “concavities,” a curious system of amplifying the horn signal through large concavities made by the shepherds of the Romagna Apennines at that time.

FROM THE FIRST MINES TO WORLD WAR II

Of note in 1789, the opening of a coal mine, which gave a considerable boost to the economy of the area, at least until the conclusion of World War II, when the mine was closed. In 1797 Sogliano was invaded by the French. In 1849 Garibaldi stopped there,(accompanied by Anita?) on his retreat from S. Marino to Ravenna, following the defeat of the Roman Republic. Papal sovereignty ended in 1860, with the annexation to Piedmont; the following year Sogliano became part of the Kingdom of Italy. In 1944, between September and October, the town suffered heavy bombardment following the crossing of the front (so-called Linea Christa) in a violent clash between the German defense lines and the Allied armies. The Linea Christa Museum preserves the memory of this through a collection of wartime materials, uniforms, photographic sections and cartographic material, even to the point of recreating the atmosphere of those terrible days through the reconstruction of an air raid shelter inside a cave in the Culture building where the museum resides.

“Little greatly beloved country of Romagna” GIOVANNI PASCOLI

Important place of memories traceable to Giovanni Pascoli; here, the two sisters Ida and Maria spent several years at the Augustinian nunnery. The village, visited several times by the great Romagnolo poet, was a source of poetic inspiration for famous poems of his, including “The Nuns of Sogliano,” “Sister Virginia” and “Digital Purple.”:In the years from 1950 to 1970 the town experienced a period of strong depopulation as a result of the strong economic development of the plains, and its population was reduced by two-thirds in the short period of twenty years. Since the 1980s it has experienced an economic recovery linked to the revival of the production of fossa cheese (which actually never ceased since the Malatesta period), a typical local product.