Alidosi

The Alidosi were a noble family of Romagna from the Santerno valley, who built their power around Imola. In the thirteenth century they backed the Guelphs against the Ghibellines, and Lippo I Alidosi held Imola as de facto lord from 1278.

In 1341 Pope Benedict XII enfeoffed Lippo II Alidosi with the city as pontifical vicar, beginning a formal signoria. The family lost Imola in 1424 when Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan seized it, and withdrew to the Apennine lordship of Castel del Rio.

The family's most famous later member, Cardinal Francesco Alidosi, councillor of Pope Julius II, was accused of treason and murdered in 1511 by the Duke of Urbino's men. The Alidosi held Castel del Rio until 1638, when Pope Urban VIII drove them out.