Fortress of Ravaldino

Throughout the Middle Ages it was one of the places designated for the defense of Forlì. In the 15th century, the fortified complex was still visible today. There was originally a small apparatus, called Bonzanino, probably only a small wall replaced between 1360 and 1371 by a first Rocca (fortress) di Ravaldino. A century later, in 1471, Pino III Ordelaffi had the architect Giorgio Marchesi Fiorentino design the still existing fortifications. In 1481, commissioned by the new lord of Forlì, Girolamo Riario, and again by Giorgio Marchesi Fiorentino, the Citadel was built then, on the two outer sides, the rivets of Cotogni were added (with remains still visible) and the ravelin of Cesena. Rivellini, Cittadella and Rocca were all separate bodies, surrounded by a complicated system of ditches and drawbridges. In 1496 Caterina Sforza, widow of the Riario and regent in the name of her son Ottaviano, built a third ravelin in front of the Rocca and a small building on the ruins of the ancient fourteenth-century fort, called "Il paradiso". The complex, considered at that time impregnable, was instead judged by Niccolò Machiavelli, who had observed it in the summer of 1499 when he was received there as an ambassador, too complex and therefore extremely vulnerable. Cinta di siedio in December 1499, the fortress of Ravaldino fell on 12 January 1500 at the hands of Cesare Borgia and Caterina Sforza was taken to Rome as prisoner of the Pope. The rapid development of artillery led to the downgrading of the fortifications forlivesi to prison, lasting until at the end of the last century, when the current prisons were built inside the Citadel.