Around the tower, a fortress was built in the 14th century, initially guarded by the Canetoli family and later by the Bentivoglio family, who progressively became its owners along with the surrounding lands.

In 1463, Giovanni II Bentivoglio, after proclaiming himself lord of Bologna, commissioned the construction of the castle next to the fortress. It was a location easily accessible from Bologna via the canal, aboard a splendid bucintoro (ceremonial boat). The castle served as a place to meet diplomats and forge political alliances, an ideal spot to oversee his agricultural estate, and, above all, a retreat for his court after hunting excursions in the surrounding valleys. More of a villa than a defensive castle, it featured spacious frescoed halls illuminated by large windows and heated by grand polychrome and gilded fireplaces.

The castle has a rectangular layout with an inner courtyard, rising two stories high, and is connected to the stables through the kitchens. The surrounding lawns, gardens, orchards, and clover meadows, along with the moats, have since disappeared.

The walls were painted both inside and out. Externally, against a white background, they displayed lozenges made of interwoven and disconnected reed canes, accompanied by a Bentivoglio family motto in Latin, proclaiming that strength lies in unity. The stable walls were adorned with diamonds framing the heads of neighing horses. The tower bore the coats of arms of the Bentivoglio and Sforza families. In the inner courtyard, the whitewashed walls were decorated with green branches, scarlet roses, and ribbons inscribed with Domus jocunditatis (“House of Joy”). Inside, the walls were painted with motifs of ropes, monkeys, and felines.

The castle was restored by Alfonso Rubbiani, commissioned by Carlo Alberto Pizzardi, between 1889 and 1899. In line with the eclectic modernism he was promoting in Bologna, Rubbiani revived the medieval essence of the structure and filled the gaps with Bologna’s Liberty-style elements.

He rebuilt the collapsed west wing, created the 19th-century grand staircase, and added floral details to the well carved with the crests of the Bentivoglio family’s relations. He removed room partitions, reconstructed fireplaces, and uncovered paintings in the chapel and the rooms of lilies, cheetahs, and bread.

The Room of the Stories of Bread, likely Giovanni II and Ginevra Sforza’s audience chamber, retains ten painted panels depicting the reclamation, land management, and milling activities promoted by Bologna’s lord to feed the city. It is a unique document of Bologna’s Renaissance secular art.

On the castle’s noble floor, Carlo Alberto Pizzardi installed several services for the people of Bentivoglio: a church, a nursery, and a vocational school for women.

This castle, the favored villa of Giovanni II Bentivoglio, which hosted splendid parties and received illustrious visitors such as Duke Ercole I d’Este of Ferrara and Lucrezia Borgia (on her way to Ferrara to marry Alfonso I d’Este), fell into neglect after the Bentivoglio family was expelled from Bologna. It remained abandoned until its purchase by the Pizzardi family and restoration by Alfonso Rubbiani. Their work transformed the castle into a magnificent site, making it an essential stop for school trips and beauty lovers alike.
After Carlo Alberto Pizzardi’s death, attention once again waned. Time spared Pizzardi and Rubbiani the pain of witnessing the fortress tower mined and destroyed by German soldiers on April 21, 1945, the day before Bentivoglio’s liberation.

Textual content curated by Marianna Biondi

As a private institution, the hospital operated for some time before being closed.

It was reopened by Pizzardi during World War I, when doctors and facilities were urgently needed to treat wounded soldiers. Soldiers completed their rehabilitation in the convalescent center set up in the Castle, assisted by Red Cross nuns who, in many cases, taught illiterate convalescents to read and write.

At the time of its donation to the Administration of Bologna Hospitals, the Bentivoglio hospital required restoration, which the administration was unable to undertake as it was focused on constructing a tuberculosis hospital in the city. For this reason, the hospital was closed again.

The hospital was reopened thanks to the establishment of a consortium among the municipalities of Argelato, Baricella, Bentivoglio, Castello d’Argile, Castel Maggiore, Malalbergo, Minerbio, and San Giorgio di Piano. By decree of the Prefect of Bologna on July 25, 1924, the hospital was recognized as a charitable institution.

Structurally, the building has a C-shaped layout, open toward a garden. It rises three stories above ground, plus a basement, and features a brick structure coated with plaster.

The design of all the façades, except for the simpler southern façade, includes a rusticated finish on the ground floor crowned by a string course, while the upper floors feature a plaster finish with molded string courses and cornices under the eaves. The centrally positioned round-arched main entrance, preceded by five steps, is located on the northern façade and is surmounted by a stone balcony.

The plans, designed by engineer Bruno Neri, depict a building with three distinct entrances: to the east for the schools, to the north for the municipal offices, and to the west for the Carabinieri. According to the drawings, the schools were to have four classrooms—two on the ground floor for boys and two on the first floor for girls—equipped with changing rooms and restrooms. Teachers’ residences were to be located on the second floor.
The municipal offices were to be spread across the ground and first floors: the post office, telegraph office, and justice of the peace on the ground floor, and the council chamber, administrative offices, and the mayor’s office on the first floor. The doctor’s and secretary’s residences were to be situated on the second floor.
The accommodations for the Royal Carabinieri were designed to include an entry hall, a dormitory, an audience room with an antechamber, a kitchen, and auxiliary facilities.

The 1990s brought a small but substantial transformation to this monoculture landscape. Thanks to community funding in 1998, an unremarkable triangle of fields was transformed into the natural area we know today through efforts to restore the typical natural environments of the plains. These initiatives expanded and connected the remnants and small fragments of woods, abandoned poplar groves, and the last hedgerows that had survived monoculture farming.
Around these elements, new forests and hedges were planted, and a large wetland was excavated in the central part of the area, now defining the Ex Risaia (former rice field). The interventions covered more than 35 hectares of plains on land owned by the Municipality of Bentivoglio, supplemented by environmental restorations by private neighboring landowners, creating a broad area rich in biodiversity and natural features.

REEDS AND BANKS

The reed beds, dominated by common reed (Phragmites australis), are characteristic of some banks and embankments. This plant thrives in wet soils and can exceed two meters in height. Within the dense reed beds, nesting species include Purple Heron, Little Bittern, Water Rail, Marsh Harrier, Reed Warbler, and Great Reed Warbler. In winter, the reed beds provide refuge to migratory species such as the Eurasian Bittern, Reed Bunting, Penduline Tit, and Bearded Reedling, which come from northern regions, along with the resident species that do not migrate south.

WOODLANDS

The woodlands and reforested areas are composed of trees such as White Willow, White Poplar, Black Poplar, Southern Ash, Field Maple, Wild Cherry, and Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur), the dominant oak species in European continental plains. Shrubs forming undergrowth and hedges include Blackthorn, Dog Rose, Hawthorn, Hazelnut, Cornel, Buckthorn, and Privet, either planted artificially or spread by birds feeding on their berries.

Many small bird species nest in the shrub vegetation, including Blackcap, Nightingale, Stonechat, Thrush Nightingale, Eurasian Blackbird, and Long-tailed Tit.

On trees, in trunk cavities—natural or carved by woodpeckers—nesting species include Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Common Redstart, Hoopoe, and Little Owl. Artificial nest boxes also help these species reproduce.

Additionally, the woodland hosts a heronry of Gray Herons, with large nests perched on the tallest trees. The larger nests of White Storks, over a meter wide, can be seen in the woods and on trees near the Visitor Center.

Textual content curated by Marianna Biondi