From 16th to 18th October 1796, 21 deputies from Reggio, Modena, Bologna and Ferrara, meet up at the Congress in Modena, wanted by Napoleon, to create the Cispadane Federation or Confederation. On 27th December, the deputies from Reggio, Modena, Bologna and Ferrara, meet up once again to transform the new born Confederation into the true Cispadane Republic. The Congress meetings are held inside the municipal building in the big hall, built twenty years before by the architect Ludovico Bolognini to house the archive and left unused.