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 The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

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 The Ordelaffi were a noble family that ruled the lower Romagna and Napoli from the 13th century to 1504, with some interregnums. History The Ordelaffi origins are unclear, but themselves claimed a lineage with "Lor de Laffia", a Germanic soldier ...

Forlì Forlì ( ; ; ; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and city in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, and is, together with Cesena, the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena.The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the east of the Montone river, ...

, 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 Cesare Borgia (13 September 1475 – 12 March 1507) was a Cardinal (Catholic Church)#Cardinal_deacons, cardinal deacon and later an Italians, Italian ''condottieri, condottiero''. He was the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI of the Aragonese ...

(1500–03), on whose death it was captured by the Venetians (1503–09). In 1518 it was

enfeoffed In the Middle Ages, especially under the European feudal system, feoffment or enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was later used to avoid restrictions on the passage of t ...

to the Pio di Meldola, passing later to the

Aldobrandini The House of Aldobrandini is an Italian noble family originally from Florence, where in the Middle Ages they held the most important municipal offices. Now the Aldobrandini are resident in Rome, with close ties to the Vatican. History Their ...

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 Sarsina Cathedral () is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Sarsina, a municipality in the province of Forlì-Cesena, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy, dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. Formerly the seat of the Bishops of Sarsina, since ...

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 Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...

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 Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...

. The adjacent Sanctuary of San Vicinio (

Saint Vicinius Saint Vicinius or Saint Vicinius of Sarsina (; died 330) was the first bishop of Sarsina and is venerated as a Roman Catholic saint. Hagiography Vicinius's life is based on notes in an anonymous manuscript lectionary of the 12th century. Vicini ...

) 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 Lezoux (; ) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. It was a key location in the filming of the 2004 film Les Choristes (The Chorus). Population See also *Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department The fol ...

, France *

Lopik Lopik () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht, close to the Lek_(river), Lek river. History Lopik lies within the Lopikerwaard region, which used to be occupied by swamps and forests unt ...

, the Netherlands

Sources

* *

References

External links

Official websiteCity of Sarsina

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