Forlì

Image:Forli SanMercuriale.gif
The church of San Mercuriale with the famous campanile of 1180

Forlì, 44°13′ N 12°02′ E, is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, famed as the birthplace of Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Its 110,209 inhabitants are Forlivesi, because in Antiquity it was called Forum Livii .

Current mayor is Nadia Masini.

[edit]

History

The surroundings of Forlì have been inhabited since the Paleolithic: a site, Ca' Belvedere of Monte Poggiolo, has revealed thousands of chipped flints in strata dated 800,000 years before present, which indicates a flint-knapping industry producing sharp-edged tools in a pre-Acheulean phase of the Paleolithic [1].

About the city of Forlì, the legend would make its founder (188 BC) the consul Marcus Livius Salinator, who confronted Hasdrubal and vanquished him at the banks of the Metaurus River (207 BCE). The old city was destroyed in 88 BC during the civil wars of Marius and Sulla and rebuilt by the praetor Livius Clodius afterwards. Presumambly Forum Livii was a middle-sized city producing agricultural products, which were marketed through the Via Aemilia road.

After the collapse of the West, the city formed part of the realms of Odoacer and the Ostrogoth kingdom before becoming an outlier of the Byzantine power of the Exarchate of Ravenna. In the time of the Lombards, the city was contested and was repeatedly retaken by Lombard forces, in 665, 728, 742 until its final incorporation with the Papal States in 757, part of the Donation of Pepin.

By the 9th century, but perhaps a century earlier, the city had wrested control from its bishops and was established as one of the independent Italian city-states, the communes that signalled the first revival of urban Italian life. Forlì became a republic for the first time in the 889.

In the medieval struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Forlì remained with the Ghibelline factions, partly as a means of preserving its independence, rather than out of loyalty to the temporal power of the papacy. It supported all the Holy Roman Emperors in their adventures in Italy. Their fiercest rivals were Faenza and Bologna. In the centuries, popes many times tried to resume the control of Forlì, sometimes by violence sometimes by allurements.

More local competition was involved in loyalties: in 1241, during Frederick II's struggles with Pope Gregory IX the people of Forlì offered their loyal support to Frederick II during the capture of the rival city, Faenza, and, as a sign of gratitude, they were granted an augmentation of the communal coat-of-arms with the Hohenstaufen eagle, together with other privileges. With the collapse of Hohenstaufen power in 1257, Guido da Montefeltro the staunchest imperial lieutenant, was forced to take refuge in Forlì, the only remaining stronghold in Italy of the Ghibelline political power. He accepted the position of capitano del popolo and gained for Forlì some notable victories: against the Bolognesi at the Ponte di San Procolo, on June 15, 1275; against a Guelph allied force, including Florentine troops, at Civitella on November 14, 1276; and at Forlì itself against a powerful French contingent sent by Pope Martin IV, on May 15, 1282, in a battle cited by Dante Alighieri (who was hosted in the city in 1303 by Scarpetta III Ordelaffi).

The following year the exhausted city's Senate was forced to accede anyway to papal power and Guido to take his leave. The commune soon submitted to a local condottiere rather than accept a representative of direct papal control, and Simone Mestaguerra had himself proclaimed Lord of Forlì. He did not succeed in leaving the new signory peacefully to an heir, however, and Forlì passed to Maghinardo Pagano, than to Uguccione della Faggiuola (1297), and to others, until in 1302 the Ordelaffi came into power. Local factions with papal support ousted the family several times, in 1327–1329 and again in 1359–1375, and at other turns of events the bishops were expelled by the Ordelaffi: Fra Bartolomeo da Sanzetto (1351), was expelled by Francesco degli Ordelaffi and Bishop Giovanni Capparelli (1427), banished by Antonio degli Ordelaffi. Bishop Luigi Pirano (1437) took an active part in the Council of Ferrara.

The most renowned of the Ordelaffi was Pino III, who held the Signiory of Forlì from 1466 to 1480. Pino was a ruthless lord, but anyway enriched its city with new walls and buildings and was a sponsor of art. When he died just 40 years old, perhaps by poison, the situation of Forlì was weakened as contingents of Ordelaffi fought one another, until Pope Sixtus IV claimed the signory for his nephew Gerolamo Riario. Riario was married to Caterina Sforza the indomitable Lady of Forlì, whose name is associated with the city's last independent history. Forlì was seized in 1488 by Visconti and in 1499 by Cesare Borgia, after whose death it was more directly subject to the pope than it had ever been before (apart from an ephimeral return of Ordelaffi in 1503-1504).

The diseappearing of Forlì from great history ended in June 1796, when the Jacobine French troops, while Napoleon was here on February 7, 1797. Thenceforth Forlì took part in the struggles for Italy's freedom

The diocese of Forlì was established early, for its bishop, venerated as Saint Mercurialis attended the Council of Rimini in 359; later legend moved him back into the Apostolic age.

In Melozzo da Forlì the commune produced its single famous painter, who worked in Rome and other Italian cities during the brief years of the High Renaissance. Other famous forlivese are Gian Battista Morgagni, Carlo Cignani, Giuseppe Merenda and Aurelio Saffi.

[edit]

External links


de:Forlì fr:Forlì it:Forlì la:Forum Livii nl:Forlì ja:フォルリ pl:Forlì pt:Forli ro:Forlì sv:Forlì