The territory

The populations who lived in Emilia between the Iron Age (IX century B.C.) and the High Middle Age (VIII century A.D.) such as Etrurians, Celtics, Latins and Longobards took in high consideration the pork breeding and ate its tasty and juicy meat. There were few people per square kilometre and agriculture was quite marginal. The most of the territory was covered by a wide forest (mainly chestnut-trees, oak-trees, beech-trees, poplars and willows) filling up mountain slopes and high and low Po valley.

The selected habitat of pigs was the brushwood where they were bred in the wild, eating roots and acorns. The following development of agriculture and therefore the reduction of forests, brought to a widespread of pig farming on family basis, enforcing the culture of domestic butchery of pigs. This is the origin of the job of “norcino”, the expert who went from house to house to lead and supervise all the steps of the butchery, curing and sacking process. This job was famous until after the second world war and the know-how of the modern swine meat processing industry comes directly from that job.


The history of the Food Industry in Castelnuovo Rangone began in the end of the nineteen century when the first factory was built, then other factories were set in that area until this territory has become one of the most important European Food District.