Tenuta Santa Cecilia: art, nature, and architecture in Bologna's hills

Tenuta Santa Cecilia is an organic farm in the Gessi and Calanchi dell'Abadessa natural park near Bologna, Italy. The estate, named after the 12th-century Abbey of Santa Cecilia della Croara (a UNESCO heritage site), spans about 6 hectares of vineyards and olive groves. It follows organic farming practices, using only natural fertilizers like copper and sulfur, and avoids artificial irrigation. The farm grows native grape varieties Albana, Trebbiano, and Pignoletto, and also produces olive oil, honey, and cherries. The owners, collectors of modern and contemporary art, reside in a house designed by architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni, characterized by curvilinear forms and surrounded by laurel and hornbeam hedges that integrate the building with the landscape. The property is connected to the farm by a path lined with centuries-old cypresses. The area has inspired artists like Filippo de Pisis, who spent summers there, wrote the poetry collection 'I canti della Croara', and compiled botanical notebooks. The territory includes karst caves such as Grotta della Spipola and Grotta del Farneto, dating to the Bronze Age, and features selenite stone used in Roman construction, visible at the base of Bologna's Two Towers. Another geological curiosity is the septaria geode, a mineral from ancient seabeds.