Pecorara

Discover Pecorara

Pecorara is a small Apennine comune of roughly 780 residents, covering about 53.7 square kilometres in the province of Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, at a municipal centre elevation of 589 metres. Positioned in the hill country where the Val Tidone meets the Val Tidoncello, it has served for centuries as a waypoint on routes linking the valley lowlands to the upland passage toward Bobbio, a geography that shaped its entire feudal and social history. Its patron saint is San Giorgio, honoured each year on 23 April.

Pecorara village in Emilia-Romagna carries the marks of a layered past — prehistoric traces at Cicogni, Carolingian-era documentation, a succession of noble families including the Malaspina, and the rise of a local dynasty whose most distinguished member reached the rank of cardinal and papal legate. Today the comune belongs to a wider territorial area whose food and wine traditions include Piacenza’s celebrated cured meats and the Colli Piacentini DOC wines produced across the surrounding hills.

Pecorara village in Emilia-Romagna: history and origins

Pecorara village in Emilia-Romagna has roots stretching back to prehistory, with traces of early settlement discovered near the locality of Cicogni, and its documented medieval history encompasses feudal rule by the Malaspina family from around the mid-twelfth century, successive lordships under the Visconti, Dal Verme, Scotti and Fulgosi dynasties, and final absorption into the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza after the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

During the early medieval period, following the Carolingian reorganisation of the territory, the area was drawn into the Marca Obertenga. Around the middle of the twelfth century, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa assigned Pecorara and surrounding lands to the noble Malaspina family, who constructed several castles across the territory to control the communication route linking the Val Tidone with Bobbio via the pass known as the Colle della Crocetta. As communal power grew, the Malaspina yielded their holdings and a local family, the Da Pecorara, rose to prominence — their most noted member being Cardinal Jacopo da Pecorara, reportedly born at Cicogni, who served as bishop of Palestrina, abbot of the Abbey of the Three Fountains in Rome, and papal legate under Pope Gregory IX.

Toward the end of the fourteenth century the territory passed to Jacopo Dal Verme, a counsellor and military captain who received it from Gian Galeazzo Visconti, becoming part of the so-called stato Vermesco. In subsequent decades Pecorara changed hands several times among the Scotti, Fulgosi and Dal Verme families before settling again under the Scotti. During the Second World War the area served as a base for partisan brigades of Giustizia e Libertà, and on the last day of 1944 thirteen partisans were killed by Nazi-Fascist forces at the locality of Aie di Busseto.

In more recent times, a referendum held in May 2017 resulted in approval for the merger of Pecorara with the neighbouring communes of Caminata and Nibbiano, leading to the establishment of the new municipality of Alta Val Tidone from 1 January 2018.

Church and Castle: Pecorara’s Built Heritage

Pecorara’s principal sites of interest are the neoclassical Church of San Giorgio Martire and the Castello di Montemartino.

Church of San Giorgio Martire

Built between the late eighteenth century in neoclassical style, the church was designed by Pietro Speltini and completed in the 1790s. It stands behind a broad stone-paved forecourt, and its facade is divided into three sections in a gabled arrangement, with pilaster strips at the corners. A single portal, reached by five steps, gives access to the interior; above it are a marble tablet, a lunette window, and a niche containing a statue of Saint George by sculptor Paolo Perotti.

Inside, the plan is basilican with a single nave articulated by Doric-order pilasters across four bays, covered by a barrel vault. The first three bays open on each side into rectangular lateral votive chapels. The presbytery is raised above the nave floor and is likewise roofed with a barrel vault.

Castello di Montemartino

The Castello di Montemartino is recorded in the sources as a site within Pecorara’s territory. No further architectural or historical detail is available in the verified sources.

Pecorara and the Piacenza Hills: What to Eat and Drink

Pecorara sits within the Piacenza food and wine heartland, where the cured meats and cheeses carrying the province’s name are among Italy’s most recognised certified products. The area is home to two pork-based DOP specialities — Coppa Piacentina and Pancetta Piacentina — alongside the hard cow’s-milk cheese Grana Padano DOP, the IGP-certified Mortadella Bologna, and Cotechino Modena. Provolone Valpadana DOP rounds out the dairy tradition of the wider Po Valley to which this mountain territory belongs.

On the wine side, the vineyards of the Colli Piacentini DOC frame the lower valleys surrounding Pecorara. Within that umbrella denomination, Gutturnio DOC and Ortrugo DOC are the names most closely tied to this corner of Piacenza, while the Terre di Veleja IGT covers lighter, often experimental bottlings from the same hills. These are provincial and regional designations rather than wines exclusive to Pecorara itself, but they are the natural accompaniment to any meal in the area.

Regional craft liqueurs also belong to this tradition: distillates based on wild sloe berries (Bargnolino), anise-flavoured spirits, and grape-based macerations with local fruit such as pears are cited among the PAT-listed preparations of the Emilia-Romagna area, though they should be treated as a broad territorial heritage rather than a Pecorara speciality alone.

Planning your visit and getting there

Pecorara can be reached using the practical reference points below. Distances and journey times are kept concise so the access information stays clear and consistent.

Departure	Distance	Time
Piacenza	approx. 45 km	approx. 50 min
Bobbio	approx. 35-40 km	approx. 35 min
Milano	approx. 100 km	approx. 1 h 30 min

These practical reference points are enough to plan the journey without overloading the text with unstable logistics. Once on site, the village is best understood slowly, on foot and in relation to the surrounding landscape.