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00 Longiano
Stemma di Longiano

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.

Best time
Apr–Oct
By car
30 min from Rimini
By train
Station in the comune
Population
7,215

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

  • J9°
  • F13°
  • M14°
  • A17°
  • M22°
  • J28°
  • J31°
  • A30°
  • S25°
  • O21°
  • N14°
  • D10°
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

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

Longiano is on our list. Its letter is still to come.

We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Longiano comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Pietrasanta.

Read on

Longiano in our articles

How to get there

From Rimini (RMI), about 50 minutes by car.

Bologna (BLQ) is about 1h 20m away.

By car from the centre of Ancona 1h 37m.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Bologna or Florence?

Coming by train into Rimini? Longiano is about 30 minutes away by road.

Every town within reach of Rimini airport.

Longiano, photo 1
Longiano, photo 2

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

We recommend

Where to eat

Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.

  • MagnoliaRistorante

    Magnolia has two Michelin stars, two Gambero Rosso forks (86/100) and a place in L'Espresso's Top 300.

  • Terre AlteRistorante

    Terre Alte carries a place in L'Espresso's Top 300, plus a spot in the Michelin Guide.

  • Dei CantoniRistorante

    A Michelin Bib Gourmand, at Dei Cantoni.

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

Common questions

What is Longiano known for?
Longiano is a 179-meter Malatesta borgo on the hills between Cesena and Rimini, holding a major twentieth-century art collection inside the family castle.
Where is Longiano?
Longiano is a comune in the province of Forlì-Cesena, in Emilia-Romagna, at 179 meters above sea level.
What is the nearest airport to Longiano?
Rimini (RMI), about 50 minutes by car.
Can you get to Longiano without a car?
Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
How long is the drive from Ancona to Longiano?
About 1h 37m by car.
When is the best time to visit Longiano?
Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 31 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 11 rain days.
Is there a sagra or a festival in Longiano?
Yes. Crocetta 30 in Festa. August is when the first of them falls.
Which other towns are like Longiano?
Brisighella, Corigliano d'Otranto and Dozza.
How many people live in Longiano?
7,215 at the 2023 count.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

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

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

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