Sarsina () is an Italian town situated in the

province of Forlì-Cesena The Province of Forlì-Cesena () is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capitals are the cities of Forlì and Cesena. The province has a population of 394,273 as of 2016 over an area of . It contains 30 '' comuni'' (: ''comu ...

Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...

, northern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Its territory is included in the Tuscan-Romagnolo Apennines.

History

Ancient Sarsina or Sassina was a town of the

Umbri The Umbri were an Italic peoples, Italic people of ancient Italy. A region called Umbria still exists and is now occupied by Italian speakers. It is somewhat smaller than the Regio VI Umbria, ancient Umbria. Most ancient Umbrian cities were sett ...

. In 266 BC Roman ''

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

s'' celebrated a triumph over the Sassinates. It is mentioned in the ''Fasti'', and in the enumeration of the Italian allies of the Romans in 225 BCE the

and ''Sassinates'' are mentioned, on an equal footing, as providing 20,000 men between them. It is possible that the ''tribus Sapinia'' (the name of which is derived from the river Sapis) mentioned by

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

in the account of the Roman marches against the

Boii The Boii (Latin language, Latin plural, singular ''Boius''; ) were a Celts, Celtic tribe of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul (present-day Northern Italy), Pannonia (present-day Austria and Hungary), present-day Ba ...

in 201 BC and 196 BC formed a part of the Sassinates. The playwright

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

was native of Sassina. The town had a strategic importance, as inscriptions, preserved in the local museum, show. Its milk is frequently mentioned; it was the centre of a pasture district and it provided a number of recruits for the

Praetorian Guard The Praetorian Guard (Latin language, Latin: ''cohortes praetoriae'') was the imperial guard of the Imperial Roman army that served various roles for the Roman emperor including being a bodyguard unit, counterintelligence, crowd control and ga ...

. In the 10th century the bishops obtained the temporal sovereignty of the city and the surrounding district, which thus became a

prince-bishopric A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty, as opposed to ''Prince of the Church'' itself, a title associated with cardinals. Since 1951, the sole extant prince-bishop has been the Bi ...

. From 1327 until 1400 it was disputed for by the Ordelaffi of Forlì, the popes and the bishops. In the fifteenth century it was subject in turn to the Malatesta family of

Cesena Cesena (; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy; and - with Forlì - is the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. Served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine M ...

, and then to the Malatesta branch of Rimini, from whom it was taken by Cesare Borgia (1500–03), on whose death it was captured by the Venetians (1503–09). In 1518 it was enfeoffed to the Pio di Meldola, passing later to the Aldobrandini.

Main sights

The city contains remains of several ancient buildings, one of which probably was the public baths. Furthermore, remains of temples and fortifications have been found, as well as a number of urns, pillars, bronze objects, etc. The Sarsina cathedral was probably constructed around the years 1000–08, has been chosen as its official year of construction, so that there were festivities in 2008. Ennio Morricone on 25 August 2008 conducted his newest composition ''Vuoto d'anima piena'', a work for vocals, an orchestra of 40 and a choir of 60 persons, in the cathedral-basilica for the first time.
/ref> The text is based on texts by the Persian mysticism, mystic Rumi. The adjacent Sanctuary of San Vicinio ( Saint Vicinius) is a place of veneration.

Economy

Besides agriculture and cattle breeding, the principal employments of the population are the sulphur and manganese industries. There are some charcoal deposits and sulphur springs.

Twin towns

Grebenstein Grebenstein (; ) is a town in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 16 km northwest of Kassel on the German Timber-Frame Road. In 1762 it was the scene of a skirmish between British and French troops during the Seven Year ...

, Germany * Lezoux, France * Lopik, the Netherlands

Sources

* *

References

External links

Official websiteCity of Sarsina

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