In the 13th and 14th centuries, the 'castle' or 'land' of S. Giovanni in Persiceto was enlarged by a second circle of walls outside the Borgo Rotondo and by expanded settlements, surrounded, like the castle, by ditches, gates and palisades.

However, because of the rebellion of the inhabitants of Persiceto, ever since the 1420s, the High Council of Bologna decreed that the external villages and its palisades had to be removed, the ditches filled up and all buildings that might be used as fortress had to be destroyed.

The ring villages were destroyed by 1481, under the rule of Giovanni II Bentivoglio; while over the years the castle expanded to its present shape with new bastions and embankments.

The inhabitants of Persiceto thankfully donated to Giovanni Bentivoglio a vast piece of land, on which later the mansion and castle of la Giovannina was built.

During the 16th century the Persiceto was overrun by foreign armies; the Agricultureal Attendance Institute Partecipanza was founded and a sharing of the common lands that took place every nine years was enhanced; the city centre underwent a process of impoverishment, whereas the weekly market on Wednesday kept flourishing thanks to old privileges.

In the first years of the Ottocento and at the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy (March 1805) calm came back into the territory of the Persiceto, but this was again overturned in 1814 by the fall of Napoleon until the Papal government was restored in July 1815.

With the restoration of the Papal rule remarkable works for the improvement of the "Castle" were started and in 1838 Pope Gregory XVI bestowed the title of city on San Giovanni.

Meanwhile, some handicraft shops had become larger and were turned into factories that employed hundreds of workers: for instance, nail blacksmiths became big managers and started producing iron beds and furniture that were sold even abroad, so that San Giovanni in Persiceto merited the name of little Manchester of the Emilia.

Over the last decades of the 19th Century public education was expanded, the traditional classical education was substituted by a technical school, the Società di mutuo soccorso (Company for mutual aid) among handicraft and factory workers was founded; during Carnival in 1874 the first fancy dress convoys were held, in 1876 the Società ginnastica Persicetana (Gymnastical Society of Persiceto); in 1877 the Cassa di Risparmio was opened to the public and ten years later the railway track between Bologna and Persiceto of the railroad Bologna/Verona was opened.

The past 150 years of Persiceto have seen pitched fights for land; the working classes shifted then from rebellion into organization: after the Comune of Paris (1871) in 1872 a new section of the Fascio operaio organized by the former Garibaldi soldier Teobaldo Buggini was established, a close friend of Andrea Costa; in 1873 the first strike by local factory workers was recorded; in 1874 internationalists of Persiceto tried to take part into the bakunian movement of Bologna; after the slump of the Anarchical International Movement the Società di sostentamento tra gli operai ('Workers' compensation society', the first local egalitarian socialist group) and in 1891 the Cooperativa braccianti that worked until the 1970s of the Novecento.

At the beginning of the 20th centur,y the first resistance unions of blue collars and farmers were founded; the foundation of the Cooperativa operai metallurgici ('Metalworkers' cooperative') traces back to 1904 and it could escape the hostile interferences of the fascist regime.

During World War II, especially during the 20 months of the German occupation, resistance against the Nazis and the fascists developed in Persiceto and local partisans in the 63rd Garibaldi brigade sabotaged the transit of Nazi-fascist trucks and cars along the main road Bologna Verona Brennerpass, the passage of train convoys on the railway, electric lines and phone lines.

In the elections, the left-wing parties (the communist and the socialist), prevailed and ruled together the municipality until 1980; the country fights record again force acts; heavy ideologies have riven the town.