Rapagnano

It was inhabited as early as pre-Roman times; during excavations in the 1880s in the locality of St. Tiburtius, Picenian materials of considerable importance came to light, dating from around the 6th cent. BCE. C.. Rapagnano is recorded as a possession of the Bishop of Fermo in a document of 1059; in the 14th century it was surrounded by walls. The castle disputed between Fermo and Montegiorgio, in 1229, by imperial order, became a possession of the latter, but a few years later, in 1244, it was recaptured by Fermo. Of the latter, thereafter, Rapagnano always followed the fortunes, except for a brief interlude, when in the 15th century it was besieged and conquered by Carlo Malatesta.

Monuments, Churches and Museums

• Parish church of St. John the Baptist, built in the first two decades of the 19th century on the pre-existing churches of St. John and Ss. Mary and Severino. On the façade rises the bell tower, and entrance is through the lower cell of the belfry where there is an inscription in Gothic characters in honor of John XVII, who was born in Rapagnano and became Pontiff in 1003; inside, a 17th-century Umbrian-Marchigian canvas depicts the “Madonna Enthroned with Saints.”
• Medieval keep, remains of a 14th-century fortress, with Guelph battlements.