Column of Hospitality

The first news of the Column of the Rings and of the ancient custom of Bertinorian hospitality is reported in the commentary on the XIV canto of the Purgatory of the Divine Comedy where Dante meets the judge Guido del Duca.

Judge at Bertinoro from 1212 to 1218, together with his inseparable friend Arrigo Mainardi, he built a column with 12 rings to end the continuous clashes between the noble families of the place. To each ring corresponded a family: when the pilgrim reached Bertinoro and tied his stick or his mount to one of the rings he was hosted by the family that owns the ring.

Removed following work on the square, the Column of the Rings was rebuilt on 6 September 1926 in Sammarinese stone: it was the tribute of the ancient land of Liberty to the ancient land of Hospitality. Since then, every first Sunday of September, the ritual of Hospitality is renewed within a great event.