Rocca San Casciano

Rocca San Casciano is a small village located in the Montone valley, once known by Dante as the Acquacheta valley.

From the perspective of the landscape, the town is surrounded by numerous hills that provide breathtaking views of the inner valleys, the Apennine ridge, and, on clear days, the sea.

San Casciano parish church was founded in the year 882, but the first document confirming the existence of this town dates back to the year 1197 and bears the expression ‘Rocca Sancti Cassiani in Casatico’.

First part of the place name suggests the existence of a castle, probably the Castellaccio, while the second part recalls its patron saint’s name. According to legend, the fortress was built on the site of the ancient Urbe Sassatica, an Etruscan or Roman city destroyed during the barbarian invasions.

A possession of Abbots of San Benedetto in Alpe, Traversari of Ravenna and Conti Guidi of Modigliana, in the second half of the 14th century it was part of the property inherited by the Florentine municipality left by a member of the noble Calboli family. This led to an enduring bond with the Tuscan city that lasted, with the exception of 1424-1440, until the year 1923, when the Tuscan Romagna territories came under the authority of Forlì.

At the end of the Napoleonic interlude, the city reached its full expansion thanks to the establishment of the Court of First Instance (1837), the Sub-Prefecture, the prisons and other important administrative offices; after the Unification of Italy, it became the seat of the homonymous Circondario, which was later abolished in 1926