The Terramare culture, one of the most significant civilizations of prehistoric Europe, originated and developed in the Po Valley around 1650 and 1150 BC.

The Terramara di Santa Rosa is located in the lower western part of the Bassa Reggiana, on an ancient sand hillock of the River Po, which today flows about 3 kilometres further north. Clearly visible in aerial photographs, this Terramara consists of two distinct areas: the one-hectare “small village” to the north, and the surrounding five-hectare “big village”. The small village, founded at the beginning of the 15th century BC, was initially enclosed by a wooden palisade, later replaced by a clay embankment that is still visible today. The inhabitants lived in single-family pile dwellings, rebuilt multiple times over the years.

By the mid-15th century, the village had expanded to the limits of the natural hillock on which it stood. Its original fortifications consisted of a double wooden palisade, likely interrupted by gateways aligned with internal roads. The houses were constructed on wooden piles set into dry ground. Large, deep wells, positioned along the innermost palisade, tapped into the aquifer, while channelled  water from these wells into the ditch and cistern-like basins, dug within the ditch itself. Together these elements formed a sophisticated hydraulic system, likely designed to provide  water to both the settlement and the surrounding farmland.

During the Late Bronze Age, the site was reorganized: the palisade was replaced by a broad earth embankment, now measuring 10 metres in width, though it may never have been completed. Uneven ground levels - formed by the accumulation materials from the earlier occupation phases - were levelled with layers of soil, on which new huts were built. These may no longer have been pile-dwellings, but ground-level structures. Despite these renovations, by the first half of the 12th century BC the Terramara di Santa Rosa, like all other Terramare sites in Emilia, was permanently abandoned. 

The site is open to visitors during the summer excavation campaigns, on specific days and times. At these occasions, visitors can also join a guided tour of the dedicated museum: the Museo della Terramara di S. Rosa.