Circonvallazione Sacchetti / Via XX Settembre - Cervia represents a unique example of a "founded city", a sort of "city - museum" that preserves the testimonies of the ancient center linked to the production of salt.
In the XVII century, the conditions of Cervia, built in the middle of the salt pans, were worsening due to the unhealthy air caused by the distance from the sea, due to the solid contributions to the coast of the Savio river and the Apennine streams. The population was flamed with malaria.
On 9 November 1697 Pope Innocent XII signed the "chirograph" that approved the rebuilding of Cervia, "considering the repeated pleas made by the clergy and the community to remedy the daily decline in the number of inhabitants and the consequent decrease in the production of salt and proposing the same petitioners to transfer the city to the shores of the Navy ". In 1698, not far from the Salt Warehouse (built in 1691), the first stone of "Cervia Nuova" was laid and a gigantic construction site was opened: the buildings in the old city were dismantled and, with the same materials, the walls of the new one; the burchielle, typical boats for transporting salt, were used to transport bricks. The project for the construction of Cervia Nuova was the work of the architect Francesco Fontana. The quadrilateral of the new city, bounded by the houses of the salt workers, had two sides of 270x170 m.
In the center a beautiful square, decorated on three sides by arcades. In the center, 13 larger houses were built, including those of the Archpriest, the Treasury and the noblest families of the city.
The construction of the salt workers' houses was completed in 1708. There were no doors on the external sides of the quadrilateral, but only windows protected by iron grates and the new urban settlement gave the idea of a sort of burg. Access to the city was only possible through Porta Cesenatico, Porta Ravenna and Porta a Mare, the only one that survived the Second World War.