What is Longiano known for?

Hill-top stronghold of the Malatesta from 1290 to 1463, communal property since 1989, now the seat of the Tito Balestra Foundation. Over 2,000 twentieth-century works held inside the castle, one of the larger modern art collections in the region. Nineteenth-century horseshoe theater below the castle, opened in 1870 and named for the Neapolitan composer Errico Petrella.

When is the best time to visit Longiano?

Apr–Oct. April through June and September through October are the months for Longiano. The hilltop catches a breeze the coastal plain below does not, and the views run from the Apennines to the Adriatic on clear days. July and August touch the low thirties and the centro storico empties between two and five; many visitors come up from Cesenatico and Cervia in the late afternoon for the cooler air and the castle. The Balestra collection runs year-round, with seasonal exhibitions tied to the foundation's calendar. November to March is quiet, with the sanctuary and the castle still open but many trattorie closed mid-week.

Longiano is a comune in the province of Forlì-Cesena, Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, about 21 kilometers from Rimini.

How do I get to Longiano?

From Rimini, Longiano is roughly 21 km by road.

Emilia-Romagna · Forlì-Cesena

Longiano

A 179-meter Malatesta borgo on the hills between Cesena and Rimini, holding a major twentieth-century art collection inside the family castle.

Known for

MALATESTA CASTLE
Hill-top stronghold of the Malatesta from 1290 to 1463, communal property since 1989, now the seat of the Tito Balestra Foundation.
BALESTRA COLLECTION
Over 2,000 twentieth-century works held inside the castle, one of the larger modern art collections in the region.
TEATRO PETRELLA
Nineteenth-century horseshoe theater below the castle, opened in 1870 and named for the Neapolitan composer Errico Petrella.
PROTECTED PRODUCTS
The commune lies inside the Romagna Albana DOCG and Pesca e Nettarina di Romagna IGP production zones.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: San Cristoforo, 23 July

Why come

Longiano sits on the first hill line between Cesena and Rimini, eleven kilometers inland from Cesenatico and within sight of the Adriatic. The town shifted from the plain to the hill in the seventh and eighth centuries, when the local population moved up to escape Lombard raids, and the settlement that resulted is the hilltop borgo still walled today, with the castle at its center and the theater just below it. Longiano passed to the Church in 1581 and stayed under papal rule until unification, before the castle came to the commune in 1989.

The sanctuary stands apart from this hilltop cluster, built around its painted crucifix and held by Franciscan presence for over seven centuries, a separate thread of the town's history running alongside the Malatesta line and the civic one. What ties the parts together is the hill itself: a defensive move made in the seventh and eighth centuries left Longiano with a compact center where a former ruling family's fortress, a nineteenth-century theater and a walled medieval borgo all sit within reach of each other, while the sanctuary's much older devotional history runs on its own separate track nearby.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Longiano’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

What to see

Castello Malatestiano
Fortified hilltop seat of the Malatesta of Rimini, later passing to the Church and then the commune. Its rooms now hold the Fondazione Tito Balestra, so the walls that once housed a ruling family now hold paintings, drawings and sculpture.
Teatro Petrella
Sits just below the castle. Restored in 1986, it is known today for its acoustics inside the horseshoe-shaped hall.
Santuario del Santissimo Crocifisso
Franciscan sanctuary built around a thirteenth-century painted crucifix on oak panel, with continuous Franciscan presence for over seven centuries.
Fondazione Tito Balestra
The collection was donated in 1986 by Anna Maria De Agazio, widow of the Longiano-born poet Tito Balestra, and fills the castle with oils, drawings and sculpture spanning the twentieth century.
Centro storico
Medieval borgo on the hilltop, with porta and town walls preserved around the castle and theater.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Longiano fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

Crocetta 30 in Festapatron saint's feast
usually held in August. TrovaSagre

Living here

Population 7,215
Commuter belti
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Train station in the comune
Nearest airport Rimini, 50 min drive
Regional capital Bologna, 1 h 22 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

Bandiera Arancione

The numbers

Elevation: 179 m
Population: 7,215
Surface area: 23.58 km²

On the map

Google Maps Apple Maps Directions from Rimini

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

Close by