Monte Bibele
Monte Bibele (Mount Bibele) is an amazing natural and archaeological site located just under an hour's drive from Bologna. We are in the Bolognese Apennines, not far from the town of Monterenzio. The mountain reaches a maximum height of 617 metres above sea level, and with its peak divides the valleys of the Idice river and the Zena stream.
The curious name of the mountain is said to come from the Latin bibo, meaning to drink. This emphasises the link between the peak and the presence of fresh and sulphurous water springs, which until a few decades ago gushed out at various points in the area.
Monte Bibele owes its fame to the presence of an archaeological area of national importance, which includes the Monte Bibele archaeological-naturalistic park and the L. Fantini Archaeological Museum in Monterenzio.
The archaeological area of Monte Bibele
Archaeological excavations on Monte Bibele have been carried out on several occasions by the University of Bologna, starting in the late 1970s. What emerged were traces of settlements and cult areas dating from the Copper Age to the Second Iron Age.
To the latter period belong the remains of the
settlement of Pianella di Monte Savino, (late 5th - early 2nd century B.C.), of its
necropolis found on Mount Tamburino, as well as of the Etruscan cult area on Mount Tamburino, known as the votive stipe, where archaeologists have found 195 bronze statuettes and hundreds of jars dating back to the 5th century B.C.
The particularity of the settlement of Pianella is that
Etruscans and Celts coexisted in the same area. The latter settled in the Po Valley around the 4th century B.C., migrating from Central Europe in search of more fertile places; some of them, arriving in the area of Monte Bibele, thus settled right near the pre-existing Etruscan community.
What remains of the ancient settlement can today be freely visited in the archaeological park, which also houses an info point, a guesthouse and even a reconstruction of some Etruscan houses.
A visit to the
Monterenzio Archaeological Museum, on the other hand, allows the visitor to retrace the history of the Celtic and Etruscan populations that inhabited these areas through a vast collection of artefacts: vases, tools, weapons, burials, and even a sundial, used to found cities.
