Middle Ages
From Mutina to the municipal city
6th – early 15th centuries A.D.
The borders of municipal Modena do not correspond to those mapped out by the walls of Roman Mutina. The repositioning of the post-antiquity city in relation to Mutina most likely started in the late 3rd century A.D., when the Roman Empire was assailed by the first Barbarian invasions.
The arrival of new peoples is especially noticeable in the funerary rituals: burials with rich grave goods typical of Lombard custom were discovered at the gates of the city (Via Valdrighi and Piazza Grande) and in nearby towns (Fiorano and Montale). The presence of the Lombards is also confirmed by written sources, as well as by the archaeological record: for example, the Lombard king Liutprand is attributed with the founding of the castrum of Cittanova, the autonomous administrative center in relation to the city, from which come finds datable to the 7th century.
After the year 1000, the settlements of Montale and Gorzano, property of the episcopal church of Modena, were founded on the remains of two important terramare.
Starting in the late 3rd and especially in the 4th century, the seats of religious and public life, the palazzo comunale and the sede ducale, are defined. Archaeological digs carried out in the foundations of the Torre Mozza, within the complex of the Palazzo Comunale (13th century), brought to light coin stashes and refined glass bottles, rare testaments to life in the medieval city.