Marche Breaks

The territory of Montefiore dell’Aso features numerous archaeological findings of the Palaeolithic and Neolithic eras (siliceous and almond-shaped findings and cusps of arrows). Also the Bronze Age is represented through some rough ceramic objects of the 14th-10th centuries b. C.; however, the most conspicuous discoveries in this territory feature numerous tomb objects of the Iron Age (9th-4th centuries b. C.). Around the present town centre, there is a continuous distribution of tombs with successive and chronological ceramic materials for domestic use (bowls, vases, cups, jugs, spindles, loom weights, etc.); copper, bronze and iron materials (fibulas, pendants, breastplates, necklaces, rings, war chariots, etc.).

The presence of so many findings of the Iron Age makes of Montefiore dell’Aso one of the most important Piceno necropolises of the entire Marche Region. Like all the other Piceno sites, this territory was later influenced by the Roman culture and civilisation; the rests of some Roman villas have been discovered in the localities of Coppola and of San Giovanni, and a cistern (in opus coementicium) has been found in the locality of Monte Gentile. In the locality called “li grotti” (the caverns) are the rests of a Roman necropolis of the 1st-2nd centuries A. D., featuring pointed-shaped caverns and niches for the placement of funerary urns. Still at present times, a discovery of such an importance has taken place only in the territory of Montefiore dell’Aso and in Massignano and Campofilone, neighbouring towns.

With the advent and diffusion of Christianity, above all between the 3rd and 5th centuries A. D., Montefiore became the seat of a parish dedicated to Santa Lucia, with a consequent jurisdiction on a large territory included between the borders with the municipality of Carassai and the sea coast. The existence of this church is documented since 1290, but the building certainly existed already outside the town walls, to which other chapels were dependent: St Maria, St Nicola, St Pietro, St Savino and St Vitale. From documents of May the 23rd and November the 6th 1413, it results that the parish was authorised to sell some benefices to be rebuilt and moved inside the town walls, from which derives the name of Pinnova (pieve nuova = new parish).

The first barbaric invasions (Alarico in 410, the Huns of Attila in 452 and the Vandals of Genserico in 455) did not involve the Piceno region, being it outside the main communication routes. The region was, instead, the battle field of the war between Goths and Byzantine (535-553); during this period of devastation and sufferings the fields were abandoned to the plundering troops, the women were deported by the soldiers as war baits and the old people and the children were killed. For evident reasons of defence, the ancient towns in the plains were abandoned and some fortified villages began to appear on the hilltops (castra), which welcomed what remained of the population. In a document of 1178, Montefiore and Aspramente are cited separately: the two castra fused in a single centre at the end of the 12th century, when it was declared as a free municipal town.

The new human settlement had soon a relevant importance and the Franciscan friars erected there a convent. The 13th and 14th centuries were characterised by the presence of cardinal Gentile Partino, who erected in 1310 in his home town a marble sepulchral monument, dedicated to his parents. The Aegidiane Costitutiones report that in 1357 Montefiore counted almost one hundred fires, i.e. almost one thousand inhabitants. In 1387 the Partino family, with the help of the ghibellines of Fermo, took back the town which was, in the meantime, in the hands of the guelphs; from that moment on, Montefiore was governed by the town of Fermo. The second half of the 15th century is characterised by some social and political changes through the massive arrive of numerous immigrant families by the neighbouring villages. In the same period, the town witnesses the construction of its Hospital, authorised by a papal bull of 1478 by Sisto IV, now housed in the Town Hall.

The 15th century is also the period in which the artistic creativity of the town finds its expression, thanks to the presence of famous artist Carlo Crivelli, who created a polyptych for the main altar of the Church of St Francesco, considered as his masterpiece. The political and administrative centralisation of the Pontifical State during the 16th century has a consequence on the social structure of the town, producing an acquiescence to the central power and a radicalisation of the class differences. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the political life of the town is administered by a ruling class formed exclusively by the aristocracy and the powerful landowners. This is the period in which some famous families flourish: the Egidi, the Barlocci, the Caffarini, the Rossi, the Luzi, the Vitali, the Farsinelli, the Pacetti, the Pelagallo, the Scrilli, the Lauri and the Montani. With the unification of Italy, the political and social structures of the town do not mutate, since the “noble” class will rule the town until the 1930s. In that period, an almost total renovation of the life in the town took place and some charitable operations enriched it. The 15th century Hospital gained more and more importance through the annexation of the former convent of the Philippine friars, who in the meantime had left Montefiore. The public instruction has always been an important issue for the citizens of Montefiore and on April the 8th 1879 the Municipal Council deliberated that all the young people, those from the countryside included, had to receive an instruction. The first kindergarten was instituted in 1878 and on February the 26th 1887 the first elementary school of superior level was established. Moreover, the importance of the mayor Luigi De Vecchis should not be forgotten: he projected, at the end of the 19th century, the installation of a work of hydroelectric engineering for the supply of drinkable water, taking it from the river Aso and giving to the town an autonomous electric plant, one of the first in Italy.

Tradition links Montefiore’s place name to the cult of the goddess Flora (Mons Floris), a rural divinity worshipped by ancient Italic populations before the Roman conquest.

Montefiore dell'Aso is a delightful village in the Piceno region, situated on a hill between the valleys of the Aso river and the Menocchia stream. Its horizon sweeps from the Sibillini Mountains to the sea, which is only a few kilometers away.

The historic center is quite well preserved: large tracts of the city walls have remained, furnished with gateways and six towers dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.

The visit offers lovely views and valuable evidence of the village’s historic and artistic past.  From Belvedere de Carolis, a charming panoramic terrace, across Porta Aspromonte, we enter the historic center and arrive in Piazza della Repubblica, the heart of the town dominated by the Collegiate church of Saint Lucy.  The church has been entirely restructured in neo-classical style, but its origins are extremely remote, between the 3rd and 5th centuries, and must be sought in the parish church which was later rebuilt inside the castle walls in the second half of the 15th century.

The portal of the mother church is made of sandstone blocks with panels carved in bas-relief depicting early Christian symbols dating to the 11th-12th centuries.  It has been reinserted in the new edifice (transformed and enlarged over a long period of time: from 1730 to 1850).  The portal, called della Pinnova, can be admired in the rear of the Collegiate church.  In 1900, on occasion of the Holy Year, the church was richly decorated by artists of the Fermo school.  We can appreciate the coffered ceiling embellished with stucco-work, rose-windows and decorations in relief, the tempera paintings by Luigi Fontana depicting the life of Saint Lucy and the walnut choir of the 17th century.  The real masterpiece is located in the first chapel on the left, the marvelous altar-piece which the Venetian Carlo Crivelli painted around 1474 for the church of S. Francesco.

His polyptychs on wood and those of the Crivelli School are present in other Piceno towns but the one at Montefiore which today is preserved in the church of S. Lucia, according to the art critics, represents the most independent and creative period of his artistic activity.

Only a triptych remains today of what was originally a polyptych with five sections and a predella and upper panel: the rough figure of Saint Peter dominates the center, in strong contrast with the delicate images of St. Catherine of Alexandria on the left, with the wheel and palm of the martyr, and Saint Mary Magdalene on the right, with the ointment and bright red cloak, symbols of the Passion.  In the upper part, Saint Louis of Toulouse is represented on the right, Saint Clare in the center and another Franciscan saint of uncertain identity on the left. Like all of Crivelli’s works, this one also is marked by decorative imagination and psychological representation, above all in the figure of Mary Magdalene, who in the Passion incarnates the more human than spiritual side.  The “terse and refined” Gothic painter, as Valeri defined him, here gives further proof of his enchanted fervor for color.

Descending from Piazza della Repubblica towards piazzale S. Francesco, we come upon the church dedicated to this saint and the attached convent.  Constructed between 1247 and 1303, with the proceeds of the alms collected by the friars, the church of S. Francesco preserves its original Romanesque-Gothic style in its external structure as well as in the 1303 portal which can now be admired in the sacristy.  Radical restructuring between the mid-17th and mid-18th centuries transformed the interior in Baroque style.

Numerous 17th-18th century structures can be found in the village: Palazzo Egidi, Palazzo De Vecchis, Palazzo Montani, Palazzo Vitali, Palazzo Farsinelli, Palazzo De Sgrilli, Palazzo Rossi, Palazzo Ciarrocchi and Palazzo Simonetti. Just outside the center, the church of S. Filippo Neri was erected over the foundation of a small church constructed between 1573 and 1605, dedicated to Saint Mary of the Mountain, and restructured at the end of the 17th century.

Near S. Filippo rises the church of Corpus Domini with the attached Dominican monastery (1846).

Three churches outside the walls but still in Montefiore territory should be remembered: along the provincial road leading to Carassai, the delightful rural church of S. Maria delle Grazie, which brings to mind a short prayer in the greenery of the meadows, and the church of S. Maria della Fede.

Finally, along the road leading to Campofilone, that of S. Giovanni Battista.

Once you find yourself in the town you will discover that there are other attractions, such as the panorama of the impressive chain of the Sibylline Mountains.

Moreover you will be pleasantly surprised if you visit the archaeological excavation of the Piceni and Roman settlements: i “Grotti”.

Montefiore has therefore an ancient history that continued into the period of the mediaeval communes and then knew its greatest artistic splendour when it passed under the direct rule of the Holy See in the second half of the XV century.