Parco Regionale Abbazia di Monteveglio

The Territory

The Park
About a thousand hectares on the hills behind Monteveglio: only a few steps far from the city, this is the smallest among the Regional Parks in Emilia Romagna.
A pleasant and varied landscape, where vineyards and orchards alternate with steep woody slopes, and where small and well protected valleys hold small natural treasures.
The mosaic of cultivated lands, hedges and woody areas is suddenly interrupted by the badlands, namely very ancient clay outcrops making the landscape even more rugged and fascinating at the same time.
Besides the natural environments there are also important historical testimonies: the ruins of the castle from the age of Matilda of Tuscany - famous for her rough medieval events - the St. Mary Abbey, the wonderful noble palaces, the oratories and the old rural centers surrounded by fields and vineyards.

The Samoggia valley
A historically border territory which Bologna and Modena competed for, the Samoggia valley includes the municipalities of Savigno, Castello di Serravalle, Monte San Pietro, Monteveglio, Bazzano, Crespellano.
The valley develops along the stream of the same name, and its first stretches have the typical characteristics of our Apennines: wide woody areas, few houses all over the cultivated lands, meadows delimited by woody belts, downy oaks or fruit trees. About 20 km far from the spring the river Samoggia starts to cross the plain, which is characterized by a more intensive agriculture.
The particular geological structure, together with the high water richness, led to the development of a flourishing agriculture characterized by vineyards, orchards and cereals.

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Geomorphology

The words used in 1870 by the geologist Giuseppe Bianconi from Bologna still represent an excellent introduction to the geology of these hills that can be considered as a manual to skip through while walking along the Park trails.

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Flora and Vegetation

Grasslands, abandoned cultivated fields, shrub formations, woods, arable lands, and tidy vineyards: the varied vegetational covering of the Park, resulting from the great variety of outcropping rocks, offers without a doubt an efficient overall view of the natural and landscape features of the hills of Bologna.

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Fauna

Without a doubt, the variety of environments characterizing the Park favors a great biodiversity, creating the ideal conditions for the development of a diversified and abundant wildlife.

• The mammals of the hilly belt
• Reptiles
• Birds of the woods and open spaces

History and landscape

It is one of the richest territories in the regional archaeology, it was inhabited since prehistory, and it gained significance during the Roman and Byzantine period. It was the protagonist of the tragic events occurred in the Middle Age, and it was relegated on the edge of history during modern times.

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