| San Leo | ||
 | ||
| State | Italy | |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Emilia Romagna | |
| Territory | Valmarecchia | |
| Altitude | 589 m a.s.l. | |
| Surface | 53.14 km² | |
| Inhabitants | 3.074 (year 2010) | |
| Name inhabitants | Leontini | |
| Prefix tel | 39 0541 | |
| POSTAL CODE | 47865 | |
| Time zone | UTC 1 | |
| Patron | San Leone (1 August) | |
Position
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| Tourism site | ||
| Institutional website | ||
San Leo is a city ofEmilia Romagna.
To know
It is part of the most beautiful villages in Italy and has been awarded the orange flag by the Italian Touring Club. It is also part of the "Jewels of Italy"evaluated by MiBACT.
Geographical notes
On a rocky spur that rises over the surrounding places, similar to the similar rock formation of the neighbor Republic of San Marino, the city looks a bit like an eagle's nest, high and unreachable, with the mighty profile of its fortress dominating the panorama from above. Located in the Alta Valmarecchia, is 21 km from San Marino, 33 from Rimini, 55 from Urbino,
Background
City of art, which has always been the historical capital of Montefeltro (ancient name of San Leo until the twelfth century), place of passage of San Francesco and Dante, prison of Felice Orsini and Cagliostro, San Leo also had the honor of being capital of Italy or, better, of the Italic Kingdom of Berengario II, who was defeated in Pavia in 961 AD by Otto I of Saxony and who then took refuge in San Leo, where he held the siege for two years before yielding to his opponent.
In united Italy, the municipality of San Leo belonged to the Marche (province of Pesaro and Urbino) until 15 August 2009, when it was seconded together with six other municipalities in Alta Valmarecchia in implementation of the outcome of a referendum held on 17 and 18 December 2006 and aggregated toEmilia Romagna in the provincial administrative area of Rimini.
San Leo and San Marino - a little bit of history and a little bit of legendSan Leo can be said twin of San Marino. The history of the two cities of San Leo and San Marino is in fact linked from its origins; both are named after their founder Leo and Marino, two stonemasons who in 257 BC. they came to Rimini from the island of Rab in Dalmatia to practice their trade. Once on Monte Titano they were fascinated by the place; they took refuge there to escape the persecutions of Diocletian, since the two preached the Gospel to convert the local population.
After three years Leo with some others left Marino on the Titano and went to Monte Feliciano (Monte Feretrio); he built a chapel there and began his work of preaching and evangelization. Both stonemasons became Saints, and both left the embryo of the two cities as a perennial memory of their work.
How to orient yourself
San Leo (Italy): full screen map.Neighborhoods
Its municipal territory also includes the inhabited centers of Azienda, Capicchio, Castelnuovo, Montefotogno, Montemaggio, fontanelle, Pietracuta, Pietramaura, Santa Lucia, Tausano and Torello.
How to get
By car
- Rimini north motorway exit, on the A14 Adriatic motorway.
- State Road 258 Marecchia
On the train
Railway station of Rimini.
How to get around
By taxi
- Benedettini Giancarlo taxi service, Via Leontina, 193 (In Pietracuta), ☎ 39 0541 924035.
- Benedettini Corrado taxi service, Monte Zoro locality (In Pietracuta), ☎ 39 0541 924083.
What see
1 Fortress (Rocca). 
Full € 8.00 - Cumulative ticket Rocca, Museum and Civic Tower (summer only) € 10.00.. 
Every day from 9.00 to 19.00. The Fort or Rocca di San Leo is located on the top of the rocky peak that overlooks the town of Leontine and dominates the Valmarecchia. A first fortification on the top of the mountain was built by the Romans. In the Middle Ages it was bitterly disputed by the Byzantines, Goths, Franks and Lombards. Between 961 and 963 it was besieged by Berengario II, the last king of the Lombard kingdom of Italy by Otto I of Saxony. Around the middle of the 11th century the counts of Montecopiolo arrived in Montefeltro, the ancient name of San Leo, from which they took the name and title of counts. In the second half of the fourteenth century, the Malatesta family managed to conquer the fortress, alternating in the dominion of the Montefeltro until the middle of the fifteenth century. In 1441 Federico da Montefeltro had the fortress rebuilt to keep up with the new military techniques, entrusting the task to the Sienese engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini.
Full € 8.00 - Cumulative ticket Rocca, Museum and Civic Tower (summer only) € 10.00.. 
Every day from 9.00 to 19.00. The Fort or Rocca di San Leo is located on the top of the rocky peak that overlooks the town of Leontine and dominates the Valmarecchia. A first fortification on the top of the mountain was built by the Romans. In the Middle Ages it was bitterly disputed by the Byzantines, Goths, Franks and Lombards. Between 961 and 963 it was besieged by Berengario II, the last king of the Lombard kingdom of Italy by Otto I of Saxony. Around the middle of the 11th century the counts of Montecopiolo arrived in Montefeltro, the ancient name of San Leo, from which they took the name and title of counts. In the second half of the fourteenth century, the Malatesta family managed to conquer the fortress, alternating in the dominion of the Montefeltro until the middle of the fifteenth century. In 1441 Federico da Montefeltro had the fortress rebuilt to keep up with the new military techniques, entrusting the task to the Sienese engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini.- In 1502 Cesare Borgia took possession of the fortress. On the death of Pope Alexander VI Borgia in 1503, Guidobaldo da Montefeltro resumed possession of his domains. In 1516 the Florentine troops, supported this time by Leo X and led by Antonio Ricasoli, entered the city and requisitioned the fort. Until the devolution to the Papal State from the Duchy of Urbino in 1631, San Leo belonged to the Della Rovere family from 1527. With the new possession the function of the building passed from fortress to prison. Among the inmates who were imprisoned there, the names of Felice Orsini and the Palermo adventurer Cagliostro stand out. In 1906 the fortress ceased to be a prison and for eight years, until 1914, it housed a "company of discipline". Currently the rooms of the fortress house an arms museum and a picture gallery.
- In the fortress there are two quite distinct parts: the keep, which with its square turrets and the Gothic entrance is the oldest part and the residential wing, the round towers and the hull wall with corbels that connects them. most recent. The two towers, the boundary wall and the keep also delimit the so-called Piazza d'armi.
- The area is dotted with rocky peaks that rise turning the steepest walls towards the sea. On each of these peaks a fortress or the ruins of a fortress remind us of a tumultuous past; while the ancient churches temper the proud aspect of valleys and hills. To the visitor who climbs the Romagna plain, the City-Fortress appears shielded by its enormous shield of very high and smooth rock. To those who come down from the mountain it appears as a ship with a very high bow facing east, with the bell tower similar to a mast, and with its handful of different and stacked houses.
- 2 Duomo. It stands on an older structure that dates back to the seventh century, when the village was called Montefeltro and rose to the rank of civitas seat of the Diocese. Of the ancient building remain the sculptural remains of the ciborium, the lions of the porch, of the capitals. The new cathedral was born in 1173, the year of the rededication mentioned in an epigraph.
- Built in the Emilian-Lombard Romanesque style, the Duomo is externally decorated with pilasters and hanging arches. The entrance portal opens on one side; above are the busts of San Leone and San Valentino, also from the ancient cathedral. With a Latin cross plan, the interior has three naves with a high presbytery with three apses. A huge sculptural heritage is preserved in the building, including Corinthian capitals from the 3rd century AD. and Romanesque capitals with representations of primitive Christian symbols. In the apse was the sarcophagus of San Leo; the lid with the funeral inscription is kept.
- 3 Parish church of Santa Maria Assunta. Fully Romanesque style, the Pieve di Santa Maria is also the parish church of San Leo. Built on the protuberance of the leontine cliff, where it is said that a pagan temple existed, it has two underground rooms: the crypt and the chapel of San Leone, which preserves the front of a sarcophagus with two peacocks, symbols of primitive Christianity; together with a walled relief in the south wall of the church constitutes a testimony prior to the eighth century.
- With a basilica shape, with three apses, it has a larger apse that is more than twice the size of the smaller ones, a leontine architectural feature that unites it to the Cathedral. The church is accessed through two portals each open on one side. The interior with three naves has a succession of columns with two pillars and one pillar, according to a stylistic characteristic from beyond the Alps. In the blind loggia the presence of two-colored consi recalls Byzantine-Ravenna influences. All the Corinthian columns and capitals (between the 1st and 4th centuries) are of Roman reuse. Restorations of the Thirties have unfortunately erased all traces of frescoes that once covered the plaster of the interior.
- The presbytery is raised above the crypt and houses an excellent ciborium of 882 built by Orso Malatesta. Around the year 1000 the church was rebuilt, perhaps after damage from an earthquake; with this aspect it still presents itself, and together with the nearby Cathedral and the bell tower constitutes one of the most important medieval monumental complexes in the area.
- 4 Civic tower. Euro 3.00 - Cumulative ticket Rocca, Museum and Civic Tower (summer only) euro 10.00.. It is open during holidays or on the occasion of events.. It is a beautiful Romanesque construction that seems to merge and rise from the rock on which it is built. There is very little news on his events; it is certainly coeval with the nearby cathedral, and encloses a circular construction that reaches the bell tower, which seems to be an older turreted construction. which has an affinity with the Pieve.
- 5 Medici Palace. Built between 1517 and 1523 by the Republic of Florence, it was intended to house the Governor of San Leo and the Montefeltro, after the conquest of San Leo by the Florentine troops in May 1517. Located in the square between the Pieve and the Duomo, it scenically occupies one side. It shows the Giglio di Florence carved in stone and the coat of arms of Pope Julius II della Rovere. It was the Della Rovere family who enlarged the palace between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by adding the theater.
- A further extension added a floor, thus visually rebalancing the seventeenth-century extension. The Palace now houses the
- Sacred Art Museum. Euro 3.00 - Cumulative ticket Rocca, Museum and Civic Tower (summer only) euro 10.00. 9.30-12.15/14.30-18.15.
Events and parties
What to do
- Valmarecchia tennis club, Via Fausto Coppi (in Pietracuta.), ☎ 39 329 9306894, fax: 39 0541 923707, @[email protected].
Shopping
Remember the famous magician the Balsam of Cagliostro, a liquorice-based digestive produced locally. Typical is also the walnut leaf cheese; excellent San Leo honey. You can also be tempted by sweet esplanade, a sweet focaccia.
- Leardini Liquorificio, Via Michele Rosa, 60, ☎ 39 0541 916219.
How to have fun
Where to eat
Average prices
- Osteria La Corte di Berengario II restaurant, Via Michele Rosa, 74, ☎ 59 0541 916145.
- Osteria Belvedere restaurant, Via Pietro Toselli, 19, ☎ 39 0541 916361.
- Locanda la Rocca restaurant, Via Giacomo Leopardi, 16, ☎ 39 0541 916241.
- Osteria Pizzeria Il Ritrovo, via Rosa, ☎ 39 0541 916235.
- Bettolino restaurant, Via Montefeltro, 6, ☎ 39 0541 916265.
- Guards Tavern, Via Michele Rosa, 3, ☎ 39 0541 916158.
Where stay
Safety
- 1 Carabinieri, Via Michele Rosa, 30, ☎ 39 0541 916212.
Pharmacies
- 2 Tomei, Piazza Dante, 2, ☎ 39 0541-916160.
- 3 Camporesi, Via Gramsci 47 (In Pietracuta), ☎ 39 0541 923041.
How to keep in touch
Post office
- 4 Italian post, Via Michele Rosa 4, ☎ 39 0541916274, fax: 39 0541916274.
Around
Useful information
- 5 IAT - Tourist information office, Dante square, ☎ 39 0541 916306, ☎ 39 800 553800.
Other projects
Wikipedia contains an entry concerning San Leo (Italy)
Commons contains images or other files on San Leo (Italy)
