Some of the most familiar provinces in Italy are found in Emilia Romagna. For example, Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, Parma and Rimini. I have several ancestors that have their roots in this region. Such as, the Dukes of Ferrara and the D’Este and Farnese families. You can read more about them lower in this post.
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna: cultivated fieldsCultivated fields near Brescello, Emilia-Romagna regione, Italy.Szeder László 
Bologna: Palazzo del PodestàPalazzo del Podestà (left) and Palazzo dei Banchi on the Piazza Maggiore, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna regione, Italy.Steffen Brinkmann/Szs
Emilia-Romagna, regione, north-central Italy. It comprises the provincieof Bologna, Ferrara, Forlì, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Ravenna, Reggio nell’Emilia, and Rimini. The region extends from the Adriatic Sea (east) almost across the peninsula between the Po River (north) and the Ligurian and Tuscan Apennines (west and south). It is bounded by the regions of Veneto and Lombardy on the north, Piedmont and Liguria on the west, and Tuscany, Marche, and the Republic of San Marino on the south.Bologna is the chief city and regional capital.
The northern portion of Emilia-Romagna is a great plain extending from the Po River southeast to Ravenna and Rimini, where the Apennine Mountains come down to the Adriatic coast. The plain’s highest point is no more than 200 feet (60 metres) above sea level, and along the coast there are lagoons near the mouths of the Po. Immediately to the southwest of the ancient Roman road called the Via Aemilia, the mountains begin to rise, culminating in the central chain of the Apennines. Emilia-Romagna’s southern boundary follows the summits of this mountain chain. With the exception of the Po, the region’s main rivers descend from these mountains. The Trebbia, Taro, Secchia, and Panaro (affluents of the Po) and the Reno, Ronco, Montone, and Savio (flowing to the Adriatic) are the most important rivers.
The name Emilia comes from the Via Aemilia, a Roman road that traversed the region from Ariminium (Rimini) in the southeast to Placentia (Piacenza) in the northwest; a modern railway closely follows its route. In popular usage the name was transferred to the area (which formed the eighth Augustan region of Italy) as early as the 1st century ad, and it was frequently named as a district under imperial judges. After the 3rd century, Ravenna was, as a rule, not treated as part of Aemilia, the chief town of which was Placentia. In the 6th century, Ravenna became the seat of a Byzantine exarchate.
After the Lombards had for two centuries attempted to subdue the maritime pentapolis (Rimini, Ancona, Fano, Pesaro, and Senigallia), the Frankish king Pippin III took these five cities from the Lombard ruler Aistulf and in 755 gave them to the papacy, to which, under the name of Romagna, they continued to belong. The other chief cities of Emilia—Ferrara, Modena, Reggio nell’Emilia, Parma, and Piacenza—were independent. Whether belonging to the Romagna or not, each had a history of its own, and, notwithstanding the feuds of the Guelfs and Ghibellines (papal and imperial factions), they prospered considerably.
Papal supremacy in the Romagna remained little more than nominal until Cesare Borgia, the natural son of Pope Alexander VI, crushed most of the petty princes there, and the Romagna came under papal administration after the death of Alexander in 1503. The papacy also controlled Ferrara and Bologna after the 16th century, while the rest of the region was largely dominated by the Este duchy of Modena and the Farnese duchy of Parma and Piacenza. After a period of Napoleonic domination, the Congress of Vienna (1815) returned Romagna to the papacy and gave the duchy of Parma to Marie Louise, wife of the deposed Napoleon, and Modena to the archduke Francis of Austria, the heir of the last Este. After a period of continuous unrest and numerous attempts at revolt, Emilia passed to the Italian kingdom almost without resistance in 1860. The name of the region was changed to Emilia-Romagna in 1948.
With its broad lowland and adequate water supply (from both rainfall and irrigation), Emilia-Romagna is one of the leading agricultural regions of Italy. Wheat, corn (maize), fodder, and sugar beets are the principal crops; vegetables and fruits are also grown in the lowlands and grapes on the Apennine slopes. Livestock raising and dairy farming are extensive, and the region has a large food-processing and food-packing industry.
The manufacture of cars and trucks, farm machinery, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, ceramics, and clothing is important. Small hydroelectric stations on the rivers provide power, and these are connected with the Alpine plants so that interchange at different seasons is possible. The discovery of large deposits of natural gas (at Cortemaggiore north of Fidenza and near Ravenna) and of oil (at Busseto near Cortemaggiore) gives the region a vital role in the energy economy of Italy.
Bologna is a communications hub for commerce between northern and southern Italy, and the region is well served by secondary railway lines and highways. Area 8,542 square miles (22,123 square km). Pop. (2006 est.) 4,187,557.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen, Corrections Manager.
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Prehistory of Emilia Romagna
While sharing the same historical evolution and dynamics with the rest of Northern Italy, the Emilia Romagna region became a sort of a bridge between the various environments of the peninsula during the various phases of prehistory. In fact, the populations of central Italy came in direct contact with the northernmost part of the peninsula, influencing each other’s cultures from the Neolithic Age.
The territory of Emilia Romagna was inhabited with certainty since the earliest prehistoric times. Numerous traces of the Lower Paleolithic era are located in the coastal area and in the Apennine valleys, including Correcchio.
From the plains come the numerous findings linked to the Middle Paleolithic age, while the most significant Upper Paleolithic testimonies are some feminine statues called “Veneri” from Savignano sul Panaro and Chiozza.
The first part of the Neolithic period is characterized by the cultural facets of Fiorano, where the typical engraved ceramics appeared. This craft represents a clear point of contact with the coarse culture developing at the same time in Sasso.
The Middle Neolithic and most of the Upper Neolithic periods are characterized by other cultural diffusions that resulted in square-shaped urns and vessels. At the end of this period and in the last centuries of the fourth millennium BC, Emilia Romagna presents typical aspects of the Lagozza culture, characterized by further development of ceramics.
The situation in the region during the Eneolithic era is unclear, although some recent excavations carried out at Spilamberto have attributed the typical “scaly ceramics” to this stage. On the other hand, the presence of the ceramics in both residential and burial contexts is well-attested, especially in the period between the end of the Eneolitic era and the Bronze Age. The ceramics of the period are characterized by their typical bell shape, and they are skillfully decorated. Besides ceramics, the Bronze Age is characterized by the spread of the terramaricoli villages.
In the thirteenth century BC, there is a clear influence of the Subapennine facets of development, borrowed from central Italy, especially in the Romagna area.
Emilia Romagna massively abandoned the Terramare culture between the twelfth and tenth centuries BC, while the Protovillanovian culture emerged not only in the region but almost everywhere in the peninsula. This culture is characterized by a complex ritual of incineration and the first Villanovian tombs of the region are located in the area of Bologna and Verrucchio, in the proximity of Rimini.
The Etruscan colonization in the region started soon after the Iron Age in an area connecting the Valley of Po to Tuscany. During this period Bologna flourished. Made up of several urban agglomerations, the city was placed between two fundamental routes of communication connecting the valleys of the region and the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian sea between Spina and Pisa.
As a result, Bologna became the central node between Etruria and the north of the Peninsula. Lastly, in the sixth century BC, the region meets the advent of the Felsinean civilization that is strongly influenced by the Etruscans.
History of Emilia Romagna
Emilia Romagna was colonized by the Etruscans between the ninth and the sixth centuries BC, and the period was extremely flourishing for the region. During this period, numerous centers including Cesena, Parma, Piacenza, and Modena arose.
The economic centrality assumed in the fifth century BC by the Padan Etruria brought Etruscans and the populations of Umbriainto direct contact with the Celtic populations. Their pressure, initiated in the sixth century, intensified even more as a result of the prosperous economy, and it concluded with the invasion of the Galls and the rupture of the Italian-Etruscan system in the fourth century BC.
To fight against the invasion of the Galls, the Romans expanded their territory to the north of the Adriatic and founded Rimini.
In 218 BC were born the colonies of Piacenza and Cremona, two settlements intended to control the Valley of Po. As a conclusion to the war against Hannibal in 202 and overwhelmed by the Galls in 191 BC, Romefounded numerous other colonies including those of Bologna, Modena, and Parma.
In 187 BC Marco Emilio Lepido built Via Emilia, from which the region gains its name. Constituted as the spine of the Roman colonization, Via Emilia is based in the center of the system and represents one of the main arteries and communication routes of the Roman empire.
At the end of the first century BC, Aemiliabecame the VIII district of the new order of Augustus who built a port in Ravenna, making this city the official seat of the defense-oriented fleet in the eastern Mediterranean. Thus Ravenna, together with Bologna, became the main center of the region.
In the third century AD, under the diocesan reorganization, the region was divided into a western part, Aemilia, and an Oriental part embedded in the Flaminia et Picenumregion. Despite the decline of the empire in the fifth century, Ravenna knew a period of growth and success. In fact, in 402 the city became the imperial residence of the west and the capital of the Theodoric Kingdom, as well as the seat of the Byzantine domination in Italy.
The descent of the Longobards in Italy in 568 marked the end of the Byzantine state that deteriorated with a remarkable rapidity. The Longobards conquered the Emilia area between 569 and 570 and Romagna between 728 and 751.
The ninth century was characterized by the increased power of the bishops and the tendency towards the creation of small committees, particularly in Emilia Romagna. The religious authority was never strong in the region, and the struggles for investments between the eleventh and twelfth centuries weakened it even more, favoring the advent of the Communes.
In this period emerged cities like Parma and Piacenza, two settlements that only played a secondary role until then.
The first step towards the transformation of the communal institutions into a noble regime was made in the thirteenth century, with the establishment of the podestà. The process wasn’t fast everywhere in the region, but some cities adhered to it almost immediately, such as Ferrara and Piacenza.
In the Emilia area, the Lombard influence was evident above all in Piacenza, Parma, and Reggio, cities that were subject to the rules of Visconti and Sforza. In parallel, Romagna also developed its noble structures in Ravenna, Cervia, Rimini, and Forlì.
Although the religious power was weak, in the thirteenth century the Papal authority was recognized by Ottone IV and Federico II. As a result, the fifteenth century witnessed the struggles between the popes and the lords, which caused the culture and economy to stagnate in the region, while in the neighboring region’s cities such as Florenceand Venicewere expanding rapidly, attempting to extend their territories in Emilia Romagna.
In 1559 the region was divided between the Farnese and the Pontifical State, which occupied Romagna firmly and placed its seat in Bologna. In 1597 Ferrara was also added to the Pontifical State, and the situation remained almost unchanged until 1731 when the Duchy of Parma passed under the domination of Charles of Bourbon.
In the Napoleonic period, the cities of Modena, Bologna, Reggio, and Ferrara were annexed to the Cispadana Republic, while Parma and Piacenza were joined to France in 1802.
The region became officially part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860 and since then it met a restructuring of the agriculture. This restructuring resulted in the rise of an agricultural proletariat and a general accentuation of the class conflicts. In this climate spread the cooperatives, the mutual relief organizations and the workforce chambers, institutions that created the basis of the modern Emilia Romagna.
Credit to Trips to Italy for this information.
