Russi – Ex Church in Albis

The town boasts a truly two-thousand-year history, as attested by the archaeological site of the Roman Villa of the 2nd century AD. After the barbarian invasions, however, the territory was progressively abandoned and this caused the return of swamps and marshes. It was only in the early Middle Ages that Russi was disputed by Ravenna and Faenza, hence the construction of the two fortresses: the castle of Cortina and those of Raffanara, subsequently demolished.

A single fortified centre dates back to 1371 under the power of the family of Ravenna Guido da Polenta. Even Russians, like the other neighboring towns, was besieged by the Borgia family and later by the Papal State. But throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the city was the subject of continuous fortifications and restoration of the defensive walls that over the years revealed its instability. The inhabited centre began to expand even beyond the fortifications, which gradually lost their identity.