Sasso Mobile

Open only for guided tours upon request; garden and village always open

Guided tours the last Sunday of every month, from 10 am to noon, and from 3-5 pm. Reservations required through the Tourist Office.

The hamlet of Colle Ameno, crowning achievement in an Enlightenment Age project commissioned by Filippo Carlo Ghisilieri, Senator of the City of Bologna, in 1700, appears as an impressive complex of crimson buildings. The plan was to create a modern, autonomous, urbanistic nucleus which would include not only the villa, but also all the outlying structures necessary for everyday life: shops, a theatre, a hospital, a potter's, a printer's, a church and other service buildings like stables, sheds, barns, and storehouses. Annexed to the hamlet is an 18th century Baroque oratory, the only one of its kind, dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua. With a cross-shaped layout and a façade shared with the hospital, the building is characterized by two entryways and a tall, flat bell tower with a clock painted under the bell. The inside is decorated with frescoes, paintings wooden altars and sculptures created by master sculptors Angelo Gabriello Piò and Mauro Aldrovandini. The hamlet is still inhabited today, and the antique craft workshops have been restored. Blue and white floral-designed pottery is once again being produced here. During World War II, Colle Ameno was occupied by the Germans as a sorting center for prisoners captured during round-up raids (see Memorial Hall).