The tower dates back to the Lombard era and was erected on the high ground (715 m a.s.l.), part of the defensive line along the ridge between the
Senio and the
Santerno, on the borders between the territories occupied by this people and those still in possession of the Byzantine
exarchate. The position of Mount Battaglia later continued to represent the focal point of the military arrangements placed to control and defend the valleys of the two rivers and the plain between
Imola and
Faenza. The "
castrum de Monte de Battalla" is first attested in a document of 1154, belonging to Imola. In 1390, the senate of
Bologna, to whom it had come into possession, decreed the destruction of the fortress: the task was entrusted to Ugolino di Boccadiferro with 500 warriors. In 1392 it was in the possession of the
Alidosi, who restored the fortress, and then passed to
Guidantonio Manfredi of
Faenza. The latter's son, Taddeo, lord of Imola, strengthened it against the conquest attempts of his uncle Astorgio, who nevertheless seized it in 1462 by a stratagem, only to be forced to return it. The fortress later passed to
Girolamo Riario and, from him, to
Caterina Sforza, lady of Imola. In 1494 a bastion was built leaning against the north side of the tower which is still preserved today, the work of Bruchello, a stonemason. In 1502 the fortress was conquered by
Cesare Borgia, but two years later it was already under the rule of
Venice, and in 1505 it returned to the possession of the
Holy See in whose name the city of Imola kept a "castellan" there. In October 1506
Pope Julius II passed through it on his way to Imola. During the 16th century, the fortified works were superseded by the evolution of military technology, and Monte Battaglia also lost importance and prestige, so much so that in 1601 the city of Imola found no one willing to take on the position of
castellan. A
Franciscan hermitage was briefly housed there, and in 1640 Imola required Casola Valsenio, in whose territory the fortress was located, to keep an armed guard there. However, the inhabitants of Casola obtained permission to demolish the fortifications, and the building fell into neglect. A 1757 notice forbade the "carrying away of stones, fragments, and other things of the said fortress and tower." After the
unification of Italy, the fortress became a refuge for brigands, usually former smugglers, who had operated between the
Papal States and the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany. At the end of the century, it was occupied by a family of sharecroppers, who used some rooms located between the tower and the walls on the southeastern side. This was succeeded by another farming family, which finally abandoned it in 1942.
The 1944 battle On 24 September 1944, a partisan battalion of the 36th Garibaldi Brigade, 250 men strong and divided into six companies, operating in the Imola and Faenza Apennines, began an infiltration movement that led it to occupy Mount Battaglia on the morning of the 27th. On the same morning, a group of partisans engaged the German units defending the summit of Mount Carnevale. On the other side of the mountain, unbeknownst to the partisans, soldiers of the 350th regiment of the U.S.
88th Infantry Division (Blue Devils), engaged in the breakthrough of the
Gothic Line, were operating from south to north following the watershed between the
Senio and
Santerno rivers. but the sacrifice of lives, with over 2,000 killed, did not bring immediate effects: despite the fact that the conquest of Monte Battaglia opened the way to the Po Valley, the Allied advance was halted, for reasons of military and political strategy, until the spring of the following year. As a result of the fighting and the intense use of artillery, the remains of the fortress of Mount Battaglia were destroyed: only a trunk of the tower and a spur of the city wall remained, which then collapsed immediately after the war. The final
Allied offensive was launched in April 1945. The Senio Valley was liberated by the "Friuli" Combat Group, framed in the British 10th Army Corps. For the sacrifices of its people and its activity in the partisan struggle, Casola Valsenio was awarded the
War Cross of Military Valor. == Restoration ==