The district of Calbano di Sarsina is a charming village perched on the top of the hill overlooking the town in Romagna, a place chosen since ancient times as a strategic point of defense: first by the Umbrians, then by the Romans, who turned it into a real fortress. Evidence of this past can be found in the sandstone blocks and bricks from Roman times still embedded in the medieval walls that, although partially ruined, continue to watch over the valley and modern Sarsina.
The village, known as castrum Calbane, belonged to the Church of Ravenna for centuries, until Emperor Frederick II granted possession to the diocese of Sarsina in 1220. It was precisely in Calbano that, in 1267, Bishop Grace convened the “general meetings” to deliberate on investiture rights and the medieval tax of emphyteusis, reflecting the village’s central role in the political and ecclesiastical history of the territory. Over the centuries, Calbano saw alternating dominions and lordships, such as that of the Malatesta of Cesena in 1406.
The village retains the charm of a fortified hamlet, with its low stone houses hugging along the ancient walled perimeter, steps carved into the rock and circular towers that, though mutilated and reused over the centuries, still guard the entrance to the fortress with their truncated-conical shape at the bottom and cylindrical at the top. Next to the ruins of the medieval “male,” the 17th-century Church of St. Anthony dilutes the austerity of the walls with its more reassuring presence.
Today, Calbano is a popular destination for hikers who are rewarded with spectacular views of the valley and surrounding hills as they ascend the gentle hillside. Despite the wounds inflicted by time and man, the hamlet retains an aura of grandeur and mystery that restores to the visitor the authentic atmosphere of a place out of time, guardian of millennia-old stories and breathtaking views.