Pianoro
Subject: Villages and Settlements
Toponym: Pianoro Vecchio
Type: Village
Municipality: Pianoro
Locality: Pianoro Vecchio
Description
The village of Pianoro was one of the places that suffered most damage due to bombing along the Gothic Line in the Second World War, so much so that it is now called Pianoro Vecchio ("Old Pianoro") to distinguish it from the newly constructed town located a short distance away, called Pianoro Nuovo ("New Pianoro").
Very little remains, therefore, of what was formerly a "Parish, Town, Castle and post station outside the city gate of Santo Stefano" (source: Dizionario orografico... S. Calindri - 1781 - Arnaldo Forni editore).
There are records of Pianoro dating back to 1056, though it is thought to have originated much earlier, under the name of Castel Petroso (or Castro Pianoro, 1061).
Unfortunately, the village was completely razed in 1377, in a conflict between powerful noble families, and was then rebuilt a short distance away from the small promontory where the castle stood, protected on three sides by the Savena river.