Articles

If you look from above the center of Porretta, clearly visible from the Mount of the Cross overlooking the country or simply from the parish church, you can see how it was born on the rivers: first on the Rio Maggiore that still crosses the center of origin Three-Fifteenth century, then on the Rhine on whose axis the Bagni della Porretta developed in the nineteenth century. The Rio Maggiore characterizes the urban layout of the ancient center: from the narrow and long squares to the streets aligned parallel to the river. The nineteenth-century Porretta instead is characterized by three main axes: river Reno, road and railway porrettana.

Starting from the square of the railway station named after Jean Louis Protche, designer of the railway itself, you cross the beautiful stone bridge over the river Reno and you get to the war memorial, work of 1922-23 by the sculptor Ercole Drei from Faenza. On the right the Porrettana continues with the name of Viale Mazzini, the street of shops and strolls, at the beginning of which you can visit the nineteenth-century Church of the Immaculate also known as the Church "dei Frati". Inside one of the most famous existing mechanical cribs. Then continue on the left to meet Piazza della Libertà. The square has an elongated shape that follows the course of the Rio Maggiore in its southern part. Notable buildings are the town hall and the former house of the beam, built in the style of the fascist, solemn and classic. On the former house of the beam there is a frescoed frieze that runs under the cornice and celebrates the splendor of the regime, executed by the painter Arnaldo Gentilini.

Right on the right, one of the most beautiful houses in the square belonged to the father of Guglielmo Marconi who was born at the nearby Three Crosses of Capugnano. From the square continue uphill towards the Terme Alte, where you can still breathe the air of the ancient thermal baths. Turning then right and continuing along via Ranuzzi we reach the apse side of the Parish Church of Santa Maria Maddalena. Imposing and elegant, it offers a really wide and suggestive panorama of the whole Porretta. Next to the church stands the oratory of the brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament now called San Rocco dating from the mid-eighteenth century. Returning back to the station, we walk along the Porrettana crossing the Public Gardens, the railway line and meeting on the left the spas that rise near the source Puzzola. A little further, crossing the Rhine we find the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Ponte, built around 1578 and using as image that of the Madonna engraved on a stone dating back to the mid-thirteenth century. The Sanctuary has inside the Shrine of the Basketball Player and today the Madonna del Ponte is the protector of all basketball players.