Pontecchio Marconi

The XV century Palazzo de' Rossi is a fine palace built in the late-Gothic style typical of Bologna (with battlements and decorations made of fired brick); the palace had very illustrious guests in the past, amongst which Giovanni Bentivoglio, the pope Giulio Il and the poet Torquato Tasso.

There are two floors of arcades which overlook the inner Italian garden and the oratory of the Nativity. Villa Griffone was built in 1600 by the homonymous family and the Marconi family bought it in the middle of the XIX century; here, the Nobel prize winner Guglielmo Marconi spent his childhood and carried out his early scientific experiments. At the foot of the hill lies the mausoleum where Guglielmo Marconi is buried.

The house belongs to the foundation named after the scientist; it houses a museum and a library about Marconi ('Museo dei Cimeli' and 'Biblioteca Marconiana'). Outside Pontecchio there are plenty of interesting historical buildings, such as the small village of Colle Ameno, which was built in the XVIII century in the shape of a miniature town with walls, shops and houses; the walls have been dismantled, but the oratory and part of the village are still quite well preserved.

Worthy of mention are also the church dedicated to Santa Giustina in Montechiaro (1700), the villas Palazzo Benacci, Villa Altopiano and Palazzo Fibbia. In Montechiaro there also two abandoned churches, the one of Miglio and the one of Nugareto.