In the final years of their rule, a canal to help drain the boggy lowlands of S.Agata Bolognese, Crevalcore and San Giovanni in Persiceto, was completed: this canal, the "Cavamento", made large swaths of northern Persiceto tillable and habitable, so that by the 1470s, the new parish of San Matteo della Decima and its church built.
Per riconoscenza, a Giovanni Il Bentivoglio i Persicetani donarono una vasta pezza di terreno, sulla quale sorse poi la villacastello "La Giovannina".