Marche Breaks

The origins of this delightful hill town can be traced back to the 3rd century BC. The small archaeological museum in the town hall in the main square has a collection of the most interesting finds.

On the top of one of the highest hills (463 m above sea level) on the littoral of the Province of Ascoli Piceno rises the town of Monterubbiano, featuring a viewpoint that covers the whole zone from the Adriatic sea to the Sibillini Mountains and fascinating all its visitors, even if for a short time of stay. It is the centre of a wide territory (3,125 hectares); it has a population of 2,500 inhabitants and features remarkable artistic and architectural connotations. The origin of the population of Monterubbiano dates back to the late Palaeolithic era; in the Neolithic it was inhabited by different Italian populations (Siculi and Umbri) and it became then a Piceno settlement.

The legend says that in 269 b. C. it became a Roman colony and it got the name of “Urbus Urbana” or “Urbana Civitas” (Roman town). After the fall of the Roman Empire, it was subject to different barbarian invasions. The most violent one was that of the Goths, in the 5th century; they set fire to the entire zone after having plundered it and the survivors built the small castle of Moresco. Slowly the town emerged from the ruins culminating in the year 1000 with the name of “Castrum Urbiani”, from which it inherited its present name; this hypothesis is in contrast with the one which says that its place-name derives from the name of a plant present in the zone at the time (“robbia” = madder). The Castle of Monterubbiano, even if it was inside the Pontifical State, lived the same vicissitudes of the free municipal towns (it declared itself free town in the 12th century) and for a short period of time, initiating in 1237, it became a ghibelline town, recognising Emperor Federico II as lord of the town. In the 12th-13th-14th centuries Monterubbiano fought often with the town of Fermo, resulting always defeated but never completely submitted.

Its strategic position did not pass unobserved to King Ladislao of Naples, to Carlo Malatesta of Cesena and Ludovico Migliorati, new lord of Fermo, who contented for the dominion of the town between 1400 and 1433, year in which Monterubbiano became a possession of Francesco Sforza, who enlarged and fortified the perimeter of the castle walls (2 km) and then donated it to the Papal States.

The pontifical dominance got stronger at the end of the 16th century, after which Monterubbiano lived a period of quietness.

It was on of Farfensi possessions and in 1586 Sisto V declared it independent on Montalto; then it was conquered by the French. The period of submission to Napoleon was from 1797 to 1816 after Monterubbiano was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1860.

Town walls much larger than the built-up area surround the present village; they are equipped with three fortalices whose only remains are the ones of Cassero, in the Palace Secreti. In the centre of the village there are the Town hall and the Battlement Tower, an evidence of the Ghibelline period.