Fanano

Fanano sits at 640 meters in the upper Frignano district of the Modenese Apennines, fifty-five kilometers southwest of Bologna and inside the Parco del Frignano. Monte Cimone rises to 2,165 meters above the municipal territory, the highest peak in the northern Apennines, shared with Sestola, Fiumalbo and Riolunato. The town was founded in the eighth century by Anselmo, brother-in-law of the Lombard king Aistulf, who built the Monastero del Santissimo Salvatore and a Benedictine hospice on the trade route between Modena and Tuscany.

The Este family ruled from the eleventh century and expanded the cross-Apennine commerce that defined the town. Fanano is known as the città della pietra for its sandstone workshops, still active, and hosts the International Symposium of Stone Sculpture, an open-air collection of more than 200 contemporary works set into the streets of the centro storico. The Chiesa di San Giuseppe, built from 1619, is one of the more elaborate baroque interiors in the Modenese Apennines.