Imola

thumb|250px|The Cathedral of Imola.Imola (Iômla in the local dialect) is a town and comune in the province of Bologna, located on the Santerno river, in the Emilia-Romagna region of north-central Italy. The town is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical region Romagna.

Presently it is most noted as the home of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari and the Formula One San Marino Grand Prix. The race is named for the nearby independent republic of San Marino, which is too small to host a grand prix.

History

The city was anciently called Forum Cornelii, after the Roman dictator L. Cornelius Sulla, who founded it about 82 BCE. The town was an agricultural and trade center, famous for its ceramics.

The name Imola was first used in the 7th century by the Lombards, who applied it to the fortress (the present Castellaccio, the construction of which is attributed to the Lombard Clefi), whence the name passed to the city itself. According to Paul the Deacon, Imola was in 412 the scene of the marriage of Ataulf, King of the Visigoths, to Galla Placidia, daughter of Emperor Theodosius the Great. In the Gothic War , and after the Lombard invasion, it was held alternately by the Byzantines and barbarians.

With the exarchate of Ravenna it passed under papal authority. In the ninth century it was bravely defended against the Saracens and Hungarians by Fausto Alidosi. In the tenth century Troilo Nordiglio acquired great power. This and the following centuries witnessed...
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