Cento - Italy

Cento (FE)

Emilia Romagna (Italy)

The name of the town of Cento, centuriation refers to the Po Valley, the work of reclamation, deforestation and land subdivision built by the Romans in the second century BC, but its development from a small fishing village lost in the marshes (testimony of that origin remains in the coat of arms where stands a red shrimp) at the civic center with a strong agricultural vocation, everything is placed in the first centuries after the Mille.
In this era of extensive land reclamation and donations by the bishop of Bologna and the abbot of Nonantola, dates of birth Partecipanza Agriculture, the institution that redistributes land to every twenty years among the male descendants of families that formed in twelfth century, the initial core of the community.
A land border, the town of Cento, although owned by the Church of Bologna, has been for centuries the ambitions of neighboring states, including the Duchy of Ferrara.
In 1502 Pope Alexander VI to escape the dominion of the Bishop of Bologna and gave a dowry to his daughter, Lucrezia Borgia, betrothed to the Duke Alfonso d'Este.
Back under the dominion of the Holy See in 1598, the town of Cento, lived in 1600 and 1700 years of splendor thanks to the architectural and urban renewal, in addition to the thriving cultural and artistic life: this was the context in which it was born and worked great Baroque painter Guercino.
The confirmation of this resurgence was formally in 1754, when Pope Benedict XIV gave a hundred rank of "city".