Barbiano di Cotignola
Encyclopedia
Barbiano di Cotignola is a frazione
Frazione
A frazione , in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere...

(parish) of Cotignola
Cotignola
Cotignola is a comune in the Province of Ravenna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 50 km southeast of Bologna and about 20 km west of Ravenna....

, in the province of Ravenna
Province of Ravenna
The Province of Ravenna is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Ravenna.It has an area of 1,858 km², and a total population of 365,369 . There are 18 comuni in the province , Comuni of the Province of Ravenna. As of May 31, 2005, the main comuni by...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It is a small village, known as the birthplace of the medieval condottiero Alberico da Barbiano
Alberico da Barbiano
Alberico da Barbiano was the first of the Italian condottieri. His master in military matters was the English mercenary John Hawkwood, known in Italy as Giovanni Acuto...

.

It is home to a Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 pieve
Pieve
In the Middle Ages, a pieve was a rural church with a baptistery, upon which other churches without baptisteries depended.The Italian word pieve is descended from Latin plebs which, after the expansion of Christianity in Italy, was applied to the community of baptized people...

.

History

The pieve
Pieve
In the Middle Ages, a pieve was a rural church with a baptistery, upon which other churches without baptisteries depended.The Italian word pieve is descended from Latin plebs which, after the expansion of Christianity in Italy, was applied to the community of baptized people...

(rural church) around which Barbiano formed is known from 826, when Pope Eugene II
Pope Eugene II
Pope Eugene II, , pope was a native of Rome and was chosen to succeed Paschal I. Another candidate, Zinzinnus, was proposed by the plebeian faction, and the presence of Lothair I, son of the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious was necessary in order to maintain the authority of the new pope...

 gave it to Everard, a son of the last king of the Lombards
Lombards
The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

, Desiderius
Desiderius
Desiderius was the last king of the Lombard Kingdom of northern Italy...

. The pieve at the time also controlled that of Lugo di Romagna.

A castle was built in Barbiano by Rainero I, Everardo's grandson, in 860. This fortress was destroyed on 16 May 1409, a month after the death of the condottiero Alberico da Barbiano, lord of the village's fief. In the 15th century the area was ruled by the Sforza family, and in the following century it passed under the Este. In 1598 it became part of the Papal States
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...

, under which it remained until the Unification of Italy in 1861. In 1796 it was the seat of an ambush against French occupation troops
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, a feat which led, in retaliation, to the ravage of Barbiano and Lugo on 30 June/8 July.

During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Barbiano was captured by the 2nd New Zealand Infantry Division on 9/10 April 1945, after six months of bombardments.

External links

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