The territorium civitatis of Bononia represented the core of the Hucpoldings’ patrimonial presence in Italy. From early attestations dating to the end of the ninth century, we find persistent traces of group possessions and activities more or less uniformly spread across the territories of the diocese, both over the plains and the mountains. The nuclei around which Hucpolding wealth had been accumulated was above all landholdings managed through emphyteosis, often with castles which frequently were group residences. Conversely, there are no attestations of properties within Bologna, an environment that seems to have remained alien to the kinship group's roots. The framework of the Hucpolding lordship can therefore be more clearly considered in the Bologna area, based on various fortified centres of power and widespread vassalage.

Sources enable us to trace three distinct phases of patrimonial development in this area. The first is the construction of the patrimony, about which however there are only rare and brief snippets of information. The donation to the monastery of S. Benedetto in Adili and Boniface I's acquisition of the fiscal estate of Antognano, both located on the Bolognese Saltusplanus to the north-west of Bologna, permit a patrimonial area to be outlined and assessment to be made of a link to the kingdom as a fundamental requirement for these acquisitions. Relations sealed with Nonantola refer to the same period as do those with Archbishop Peter of Ravenna.

The Apennine sector remains almost completely hidden in these first documents until the second phase from the middle of the tenth century to the middle of the eleventh, when it emerged as one of the centres of property management.