Marche Breaks

The origins of the human settlement are very ancient: between the 6th and 7th centuries b. C., Cossignano is where the Piceni founded a settlement, if it is true that the ancient name of the place was “Castello di Marte”, because here they built a temple dedicated to Mars a god who they worshiped and here the woodpecker was sacred, in fact this bird today is still a symbol of the Piceno.

The numerous prehistoric and Roman findings are a testimony of the ancient history of Cossignano. From the documents of 998 A. D., belonging to the monks of Farfa, it results that the town was originally called Castellum Martis. At the times of the Ancient Rome, the territory was traversed by the road which linked Ascoli to Fermo (Asculum-Firmum); this fact confirms the hypothesis that the place-name of Cossignano derives from the patrician name of the ancient owners of a “praedium cossinianum”, a village belonging to the “ager romanus”, property of a powerful landowner family of the Roman aristocracy (the Cossinii of Tivoli).

Cossignano belonged to the dukedom of Spoleto in 1039 when, due to a donation, it entered the possessions of the monks of Farfa. Declared autonomous at the beginning of the 14th century, it was absorbed in the sphere of influence of either Ascoli or Fermo. In 1396 it hosted, for a short time, the rector of the Marca, Andrea Tomacelli and in 1433 it was subjected by the troops of Francesco Sforza. In 1581 Cossignano reformed its own statutes, published three years later and now housed in the State Archive of Rome and in the British Library of London.

If you find this interesting then you will be more than satisfied by the history that Cossignano has to tell. To quench your curiosity all you have to do is visit the important monuments and churches of the end of the XII century and above all the original “Museo della civiltà rurale”.

You will find memories conserved of what formed the age-old daily working life of a population dedicated to cultivating the land: the rudimentary tools for working the fields and household utensils and many more handmade articles of the times.

If you are fascinated by ancient times then you shouldn’t miss the numerous festivals and cultural events which offer all the flavour of bygone days.

One is transported to its ancient past, that precisely of the Piceni and the Romans, and then the period in which the history of the town was on several occasions influenced by the city of Fermo befor becoming part of the Montalto garrison.