Parco della Chiusa

These 100 hectares of park stretch across the Municipality of Casalecchio di Reno, preserving numerous rare animal and plant species along with remnants of its history.

Leaving the Sanctuary of San Luca behind us, you will soon reach Parco della Chiusa, a vast green area located a few steps from the center of Casalecchio di Reno and whose history is closely linked to the Sampieri family. This family purchased several pieces of arable land in Casalecchio in the 17th century and this is where they built their first 17th-century villa. Later, a second, larger 18th-century one was built, which was evidently considered more suitable to their lineage. The park develops around this second villa, now abandoned.

From the Sampieri to the Talon: the last representative of the Sampieri family was the Marchese Francesco Antonio, and it is said that he met his wife Anna in this very park. From their marriage was born Carolina, who married Dionigi Gabriele Vittorio Talon in 1849. The park is also famous for the oldest functioning hydraulic structure in Europe: the Casalecchio di Reno Lock, known as the “Chiusa” in Italian. The first evidence of its construction dates back to the 13th century, with subsequent modifications over the centuries. The Chiusa has long managed the waters of the Reno River, using canals to supply Bologna and the surrounding area with water used by the silk mills, a mechanism that allowed the silk industry to flourish here for centuries. With its imposing size (160 meters in length, 35 meters in width, and 8.25 meters in height), the Chiusa is still an impressive structure centuries later, and in 2010 it was declared a “Messenger of a Culture of Peace” for its fundamental role in history.