Who we are

Montemarciano stands on a small height of 92 meters that over the centuries has shaped its history and urban layout.

Already a Roman settlement, the earliest records of this town date back to 1291, when it appears in some official documents the name “Montem Marzanum”, to be reconnected presumably or to the name Marcius, owner of a Roman fund – from which precisely derives the epithet Marcianus- or the anthroponym Morasius, from which derives the term Moraciano, referring instead to a fund documented between 785 and 788 that corresponded to the current town. While the hypothesis about the origin of the toponym is still open, in the course of the centuries there have been more legendary interpretations that have linked the birth of the town to the god Mars, fostering the existence of a mountain of Mars (XVI-XVII century); on the presence of a Roman city called “Marziana”, whose boundaries extended from Case Bruciate (today’s Marina di Montemarciano) to Montignano (hamlet of Senigallia).

Recognized as castrumnel 1307 together with the territory of Cassiano, in the late Middle Ages this small settlement is disputed by Ancona and Jesi for its strategic position at the mouth of the Esino. He knows the Malatesta domination first (from 1403 to 1463) and then the small one then (1463-1578), of which significant traces remain in the town toponyms, in some coats of arms that adorn the town’s historical buildings, such as Villa d’Ascoli, but also and above all in Marina di Montemarciano, where there is still the old tavern and post station known as “Mandracchio”.

The 1578 marks a watershed in the history of the country: with the ruinous defeat of Alfonso Piccolomini, vicar of Montemarciano from 1576, Pope Gregory XIII destroys the sixteenth-century town fortress, which has become a den of bandits. With the fragments of the imposing demolished building, the ditch is filled around the fortress and new houses are built: the road layout changes the town but the imposing two-tower fortress, even if demolished, will continue to influence the layout of the successive housing structures, as you can still see today: the central Via Falcinelli in fact, once Via di Mezzo, is surrounded by Via Umberto I, already Via del Giro Grande, which follows the ancient layout of the perimeter walls of the fortress.

After the end of the domination of the Piccolomini in the territory, Montemarciano falls under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Chamber – which entrusts to Ercole Sfrondati, nephew of Pope Gregory XIV, the former vicariate, of which he will be briefly for 1591 to ’93 – and assists the progressive economic and political takeover of wealthy external landowners, who make their fortune here thanks to the enfiteutic regime.

In the meantime, the main churches of the village are erected, which will turn out to be 12 in the late 18th century. Montemarciano continues to maintain its agricultural vocation also in the nineteenth century, an era in which it is provided to provide the new municipality with many buildings that enhance urban decor, from the school to the municipal theater, in addition to the municipal aqueduct tower and kindergarten . These architectural-urban initiatives receive great impetus, especially at the end of the century, thanks to the commitment of the engineer and building contractor Giovambattista Marotti.

In addition to the latter, Montemarciano has given birth to other prominent personalities who have distinguished themselves for various merits: from Luigia Mandolini, teacher and Italian protoelectrice lived in the first half of the twentieth century, to Carlo Falcinelli, a very young lieutenant, gold medalist to the value (November 4, 1950), who sacrificed his life to save his platoon at the Bocche di Cattaro in January 1942. Not to mention the courageous and tenacious wife of Aldo Moro, Eleonora Chiavarelli – for friends “Noretta” – who celebrated here , at the Sanctuary of the Alberici, the wedding with the statesman on April 5, 1945, and the speleonauta and chronobiologist Maurizio Montalbini, who became famous for his long periods of isolation in underground caves, to study the changes in the circadian rhythm and their effects on body and psyche.