Did you already know the history of Cervia?

The city of Cervia has always been shrouded in an aura of mystery considering that the documents and finds related to it are very few. Scholars agree in naming Cervia "the city of three sites" , since it has been rebuilt three times in three different historical periods.

Initially the city was known as Ficocle , a city probably of Greek origin. There is not much reliable information regarding this period, but we know that it certainly stood not far from the coast line, presumably halfway between the current Cervia and Ravenna and the proximity to the sea was also confirmed by its name, precisely Ficocle, which in Greek it meant "place made famous by algae". We also know that it was completely destroyed by the Exarch Theodore in 709, guilty of having allied himself in Ravenna against Constantinople.

After such a disaster the city was rebuilt in a safer place, in the center of Prato della Rosa, inside the Salina.

It was a strong city that had three entrances connected to the mainland by drawbridges, a Prioral Palace, seven churches and a defensive fortress wanted, according to legend, by Barbarossa himself. The name changed from Ficocle to Cervia in this period.

Surely the new city could count on a geographical position that made it impregnable , but at the same time it could not guarantee the inhabitants of the time an optimal environmental and hygienic condition. The saline, in fact, was nothing more than a swamp and within a few years the decidedly unhealthy air of the area decimated the population.

In 1630 they began to think of a new transfer of Cervia to a healthier geographical position. However, we will have to wait until November 9, 1697 , when Pope Innocent XII, then Head of the Papal State, decided to sign the Chirograph which contained the order and methods of reconstruction of the new city.

The document indicated exactly the number of houses to be built, the location of the Cathedral, the Bishop's Palace and the prisons for a total cost of 35-40,000 scudi. Ample space was left for the two Magazzini del Sale and the defensive Torre San Michele, which had already been built in 1691. The warehouses appeared as massive buildings, with few entrances and particularly large internally so as to be able to contain enormous quantities of salt, about 130,000 quintals.

 

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