Marche Breaks

Ponzano di Fermo

Archaeological findings reveal the presence of human settlements since the 2nd and 3rd centuries A. D. With the dominance of the Longobards, the territory was divided into “curtis” which, in the 8th century, the duke Faroaldo II of Spoleto donates to the Abbey of Farfa. The presence of the monks of Farfa are to be dated until 1070 and they are responsible for the erection of the church dedicated to St Maria Mater Domini. The most ancient document which cites the name of Ponzano dates back to 1059 and it is to be found in the Act through which Longino gives to the Bishop of Fermo hundred bushels of clay, situated in the present territory near the Church of St Marco.

The territory is subject to acts of devastation by the Malatesta on April 1415 and by the army of the Sforza in 1443. On January the 28th 1545, the contend for the frontiers with Grottazzolina ends. Through the mediation of cardinal Alessandro Farnese, nephew of Pope Paolo III, the definitive acquisition of the territories beyond the river Ete Vivo by the town of Ponzano is actuated: it is the present village of Capparuccia. On April the 5th 1570, Pope Pio V separates the castle of Ponzano from the town of Fermo and attributes to Ponzano the status of “Terra” with the possibility of electing its own Podestà. From this specific episode was born the Historical Commemoration of “From Castle to Free Town - 1570”, which is displayed on the last Sunday of July in Ponzano every year. The present denomination of Ponzano di Fermo was taken on August the 24th 1862; for a government disposition, all the towns bearing the same denomination had, to avoid misunderstandings, to complete their names with the addition of the specification of Fermo, becoming so Ponzano of Fermo.

Ponzano di Fermo will take you far away from the annoying noise of the city offering you the silent of great works of art such as the Romanesque church of San Marco.

From the outside you can admire its extreme originality and then note that it is the powerful size of the tower which gives the church the unusual shape of a train; inside you will remain silently amazed by the pure Romanesque style of its plan, the decorations, the precious votive frescoes, the monumental bell dated 1290, the presbytery where the only altar present has a sarcophagus of the Roman period as its table.

The history of this town, characterized during the Middle Ages by numerous attempts to free itself from the jurisdiction of Fermo, is to be tasted, as you are able to do July during the “medieval banquet” rich with sixteenth-century recipes, which is included in the yearly historical commemoration “from Castle to Free Commune 1570”, which celebrates in fact the attaining of the suffered independence from the city of Fermo.

For four days each year, like magic, in the medieval hamlet there are feasts, parades in period costumes, knightly tournaments will contest in the “corsa dei botti” for the conquest of the “Palio”.