 It is believed that a Gothic settlement lasted long enough to give its name to the locality of "Mons Gothorum" (Goths' Mountain), but another theory links the name to "Mungi d'oro" (Golden Milking, in Italian), perhaps connected to the many green pastures that abound in the surrounding area.The town, in its current form, originated in 1264 when the "commune" of Bologna created a vanguard here to counter the expansion of the Republic of Florence and in 1246, as a result of the complex politics of Italian city states of that period, the village was fortified to counter the continued border skirmishes and was given the nickname of “Scaricalasino” which literally translates as “unload the donkey”; this because the village sits at the top of a harsh ascent, which takes the traveller from 598 m to 841 m and it was indispensable to rest the beasts of burden following the climb.In 1507 Monghidoro was annexed to the Papal States, following the fortunes of Bologna and its territories.