Explaination: Once the castle had been built, the Bolognan Senate thought it would be wise to defend it with a surrounding moat. The moat required a constant quantity of water to best serve its function of defence and therefore Astorre Manfredi, nobleman of Faenza, was asked to build a Chiusa, or dam, on the Senio river in the district known as “Casolari”, in order to collect the water and make it flow towards the castle in a special canal. The Chiusa was then constructed and the canal was dug between 1393 and 1396. To guarantee bread for the community of the castle, it was necessary to mill wheat and therefore the following mills were built: the “Porta” mill for the contributions it had to make for the building of the Porta del Mercato (market gates); the “di Mezzo” mill, the first of municipal property; the Contessa or Scodellino mill. The canal finished in front of the “Savoie” estate and emptied its waters into Rio Fantino, which flowed in the area at the time. Subsequently the communities of Solarolo, Lugo and Fusignano made an agreement with Castel Bolognese to continue with the digging of the canal, in order to build the mills required for those communities. Now the Canale dei Mulini, starting from the Tebano district and crossing the municipalities of Castel Bolognese, Solarolo, Bagnara, Lugo, Fusignano and Alfonsine, flows into the Reno river. The canal is 38.6 km long.
