Budrio
It is a town rich in history and culture located in the plain north-east of Bologna along the River Idice, about 18 km from the regional capital
Budrio is a town rich in history and culture located in the plain north-east of Bologna along the River Idice, about 18 km from the regional capital.
Built on the ruins of the original Roman and medieval town, the historic centre of Budrio now has a beautiful seventeenth-eighteenth-century appearance, characterised by the symbolic portico.
In the years between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, Budrio reached the apex of its splendour, thanks to the advanced hemp processing technique, making the town the exclusive exporter of hemp to Europe.
It was in these years of prosperity that many of the most important buildings of the city were built, starting with Palazzo Boriani Dalla Noce, now home to the municipal library which, together with the Teatro Consorziale, the Archaeological Museum and the “Domenico Inzaghi” Art Gallery, forms a single cultural centre. The statue that stands in the middle of the town square depicts Budrio’s most famous son, Quirico Filopanti: patriot, politician, university lecturer, inventor and astronomer.
The symbol of Budrio is the ocarina, the terracotta wind instrument invented there in 1853. There is a museum dedicated to this instrument with hundreds of exhibits that bear witness to local creativity and every two years, at the end of April, the International Ocarina Festival is celebrated, which attracts guests, musicians and craftsmen from all over the world.
The countryside around Budrio, on the other hand, is home to numerous elegant villas. One of the best known is the Malvezzi-Campeggi complex, called the “Versailles of Bologna”, consisting of the Aurelio and Floriano villas. This is a historic residence with a horse-shoe layout with a long, wide portico where a large fair was held. In the hamlet of Mezzolara, stands the eighteenth-century Villa Rusconi, secluded in the heart of an ancient and luxuriant park rich in rare botanical species. The large and spacious building has a tower overlooking the park and an airy portico in front of the entrance. To conclude, there is Palazzo Ratta, with its rooms decorated with sixteenth-century ceilings and seventeenth-century frescoes.
In addition to the villas, the countryside is characterised by agricultural areas that attract a diverse fauna, consisting mainly of water birds, but recently also ungulates, mustelids, porcupines and squirrels. In these areas it is possible to go on extraordinary nature-watching excursions, in particular, close to the Idice and Quaderna watercourses you can observe magnificent communities of scrub birds.
