The charms of nature in Val di Zena between whales, botroids and flying ants.

There is a valley in the Bolognese Apennines where the evolution of nature over the millennia seems to have wanted to give the visitor evidence of rare beauty and singularity of its continuous flow and change.

We are talking about the Val di Zena, fertile with waters, myths, natural phenomena and extraordinary discoveries that enhanced the genius of the great speleologist and paleontologist Luigi Fantini. 

The Val di Zena is a small valley in the province of Bologna crossed by the small stream of the same name, which originates in the municipality of Loiano (Bo) and ends in the municipality of San Lazzaro di Savena (Bo).

Val di Zena between whales, botroids and flying ants.

The Zena stream originates from the hills north of the ridge located between Loiano and its hamlet Quinzano and after a short distance it joins the Idice in San Lazzaro di Savena, in Pizzocalvo.

Botroids Museum.

With a testimony of Fantini's precious work, the itinerary opens with the first stop at the Botroids Museum. 

The building is located in the locality of Tazzola, in the municipality of Pianoro: an ancient village dating back to 1100, along the splendid path that connects the Castle of Zena to the Monte delle Formiche. 

Restored in raw earth, the Museum houses a large collection of botroids, the fascinating anthropomorphic stones or animals collected by the pioneer of speleology in the early 1900s along the Zena river. 

Stones formed in the ancient yellow sands that two million years constituted the beach of the sea, have come down to us. 

The Whale of the Val di Zena.

 

A few kilometers from the Museum it is worth a detour and a quick visit to the locality Gorgognano where in 1965, a farmer working in a field found the remains of a whale about 9 meters long dating back to the Pliocene (between 2 and 5 million years ago) went to beach on the shore of what used to be the Intrappennine Basin. 

The extraordinary event is commemorated on the spot by a suggestive monument to the whale made by the students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, while the fossil remains of the ancient cetacean are preserved and visible at the “Giovanni Capellini” Museum in Bologna.

The Castle of Zena.

Returning to the main path it is possible to admire, from the outside, the Castle of Zena , built at the foot of the Monte delle Formiche, whose origins are lost in the last centuries preceding the year 1000. 

 

As it turns out, in the Matildic period Zena was a fortified village, a function testified by the remains of the towers and the arms room, and in the following centuries it became the home of important Bolognese families. 

 

In more recent times, periods of decline have alternated with restructuring and modernization interventions, which have profoundly changed its original appearance, without however compromising the feeling of great dignity and beauty that the place still arouses today.  

The Monte delle Formiche and the parish church of Santa Maria di Zena.

 

The parish church of Santa Maria di Zena is one of the oldest in the Bologna area and is also known by the popular name of Sanctuary of the Monte delle Formiche, on which it stands. 

 

Considered one of the most characteristic places of the Marian cult, according to historical information it stands where a Christian church was present since 1078, probably built on a site consecrated to pagan divinities, as is common for several other peaks in the area. 

 

In addition to the pre-eminent religious aspect, the current church (rebuilt in the middle of the century following the damage suffered in the last war) with the large portico and the original bell tower dating back to 1727, is also known for the fascinating and mysterious natural phenomenon which, since ancient times, every year in the first days of September, swarms of winged ants arrive on the top of the mountain for their nuptial flight which, once mated, go to die by the hundreds of thousands in the sanctuary area. 

 

A show of great charm which is accompanied by rites of a religious nature which, according to a very ancient custom, see the faithful place large drapes on the ground in the churchyard to collect the birds and end with the blessing and distribution of small colored wraps in which they are enclosed the bodies of the ants. 

 

Source.