Vignola

Vignola sits on the right bank of the Panaro, twenty-five kilometers south of Bologna and twenty east of Modena, where the Modenese plain meets the Apennine foothills. The Rocca di Vignola is documented from the eighth century, built by the Abbot of Nonantola to guard the abbey's lands; the Contrari family rebuilt it in the fifteenth century as a fortified residence, and in 1577 it passed to the Boncompagni-Ludovisi, who kept it until 1965. The Palazzo Boncompagni next door is known locally as Palazzo Barozzi for its self-supporting spiral staircase of 106 steps, designed in the early sixteenth century by Jacopo Barozzi (1507-1573), born in Vignola, who as Il Vignola became one of the leading architects of the late Renaissance.

The Ciliegia di Vignola IGP covers cherries from twenty-eight communes between Modena and Bologna, with the spring blossom along the Panaro valley as the seasonal event. The Greenway Ciclovia del Sole runs through town on the disused Bologna-Verona railway.