Cortemaggiore (Piacentino: Curtmagiùr) is an Italian comune located in the Province of Piacenza. Cortemaggiore is located in the northern Italy about 80km from Milan and 120km from Bologna, in the Pianura Padana. The municipality borders with Fiorenzuola d'Arda, Villanova sull'Arda, Besenzone, San Pietro in Cerro, Caorso, Pontenure and Cadeo. The town was founded in the 1479 by the Pallavicino family, over an old Roman habitation, which had been the capital of the ancient Stato Pallavicino. In 1949 the Italian entrepreneur Enrico Mattei, discovers in Cortemaggiore's subsoil an important oilfield; with this oil was product a gasoline (the only one refined from Italian oil), called Supercortemaggiore. The municipality's motto is "Nihil sanctius quam recta fides cum sororibus associata" (Nothing is holier than a true faith combined with other virtues).
