Rottofreno is a comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

(municipality) in the Province of Piacenza

Province of Piacenza

The Province of Piacenza is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Piacenza.The province has 273,689 inhabitants . Its total area is 2,589 km². There are 48 comuni in the province, see Comuni of the Province of Piacenza...

 in the Italian

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...

 region Emilia-Romagna

Emilia-Romagna

Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....

, located about 160 km northwest of Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

 and about 12 km west of Piacenza

Piacenza

Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...

.

Rottofreno borders the following municipalities: Borgonovo Val Tidone

Borgonovo Val Tidone

Borgonovo Val Tidone is a comune in the Province of Piacenza in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 160 km northwest of Bologna and about 20 km west of Piacenza....

, Calendasco

Calendasco

Calendasco is a comune in the Province of Piacenza in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 150 km northwest of Bologna and about 9 km northwest of Piacenza....

, Chignolo Po

Chignolo Po

Chignolo Po is a comune in the Province of Pavia in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 45 km southeast of Milan and about 25 km east of Pavia...

, Gragnano Trebbiense

Gragnano Trebbiense

Gragnano Trebbiense is a comune in the Province of Piacenza in the Italian region, Emilia-Romagna, located about 150 km northwest of Bologna and about 11 km southwest of Piacenza....

, Monticelli Pavese

Monticelli Pavese

Monticelli Pavese is a comune in the Province of Pavia in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 50 km southeast of Milan and about 30 km east of Pavia...

, Piacenza

Piacenza

Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...

, Sarmato

Sarmato

Sarmato is a comune in the Province of Piacenza in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 160 km northwest of Bologna and about 15 km west of Piacenza...

.

The main settlement of the comune is San Nicolò, which has more inhabitants than Rottofreno proper.

Name and History

According to a legend, the name (meaning "Broken bit") derives from an event occurred during the Carthaginian invasion of Italy (218-201 BC), when Hannibal allegedly broke here the bit of his horse. The event is also remember in the city's coat of arms. In reality the origin of the name are the from the Lombard roth ("glory") and fridu ("friendship", "safeness"). The village was in fact called Rottofredo during the Middle Ages.

On August 12, 1746 during the War of Austrian Succession, a battle was fought here between a French-Spanish army and an Austrian force. This event is known as the Battle of Rottofredo (or Rottofreddo).

Main sights

• The great Baroque
  Baroque architecture
  Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
  
   church of St. John the Baptist (1690) in the frazione of Santimento