Francavilla d’Ete

Francavilla d’Ete stands at the top of a hill, 234 meters above sea level, situated between the valleys of the Fusa and Ete Morto rivers. The original urban core is the same as it is today, with the main square replacing the structure of the ancient castle. The town is twenty-five kilometers from the capital Fermo and about thirty kilometers from Porto San Giorgio, the nearest of the coastal towns.
The territory inhabited by slightly less than a thousand people has a predominantly hilly terrain and slopes toward the sea to the east and gives way to the Sibillini mountain range to the west.

Historical background

The origins of the first urban agglomeration are traced by sources to the year 1140, when the manorial servants of the Counts of Gualdrama and Montirone fled to hide on Mount Titian, where Francavilla now stands, to give rise to an agglomeration free of servitude, in fact “franco,” hence probably the name Francavilla.
Capitano di Ventura Averardo della Campana occupied it in 1385 with a militia of 4,000 infantrymen and crossbowmen, taking possession of the castle, whose original structure gave rise to the present ovoid urban structure of the main square. The city of Fermo, in order to bring it back under its jurisdiction, paid 3,000 ducats and thus liberated Francavilla and its castle. Carlo Malatesta attacked it with bombardments in 1413.
On September 11, 1863, the suffix “d’Ete” was added to the name to diversify it from existing towns of the same name in Italy; this suffix comes from Ete morto, which is the name of the small stream that flows at the foot of Francavilla.
To this day Francavilla d’Ete is a town that is part of the new province of Fermo. Previously it was part of the province of Ascoli Piceno, forming its last municipality to the north, bordering the province of Macerata.

The Castle of Francavilla d’Ete

The castle of Francavilla d’Ete supposedly arose according to tradition on the initiative of two serfs who escaped their masters, but the name is typical of villages that enjoyed special exemptions or franchises because of their strategic location. The castle is mentioned as an episcopal possession in 1157, and in 1385 it was redeemed by Fermo after its conquest by the mercenary captain Averardo della Campana. The center developed around the church of S. Ruffino, now disappeared, with a polygonal layout equipped with six crenellated towers and a single gate to the south; the outer village developed around the 16th cent.

In 1221, the settlement and lands of Francavilla were granted as a feud to the counts of Monteverde, today a hamlet of Montegiorgio. In all likelihood, the settlement was at that time a fortified village, formed by wooden structures protected by embankments and palisades.
Only later, perhaps in the second half of the thirteenth century, did the center take on the appearance of a castle surrounded by high walls.
After studying the town’s urban evolution, we can assume that the castrum was equipped with a single gate and five to a maximum of six Guelph crenellated towers, three of which are still partially outlined. A first tower, now incorporated into the Town Hall, was located in the westernmost corner of the walls; the other two are on the eastern side, the better preserved one, dating from the fifteenth-fifteenth-century period.
In the courtyard of the castle in medieval times stood the community church and an unspecified number of dwellings. On the late nineteenth century all the buildings were demolished and the space previously occupied was transformed into the square named after Victor Emmanuel II. Originally the only access to the village opened at today’s Clock Tower, located on the south elevation and called Porta Vecchia until a few decades ago. Built at a steep slope to the street below, the structure must have had a drawbridge, later replaced by a brick staircase. Later modified following the influence of the neoclassical stylus, the gateway currently has a round arch, enclosed within an architraved cornice surmounted by an old white stone clock.
In 1775 a second entrance was built facing northeast, since then called Porta Nuova. The passage consists of a barrel-vaulted gallery carved out of the first floor of the Town Hall.

Monuments, churches

• Sibillini Balcony
• Remembrance Park
• St. Peter the Apostle parish church by architect Giuseppe Sacconi
• Madonnetta Church, with fresco Madonna and Child
• Church of the patron saint St. Roch with attached two frescoes the Nativity and the Crucifixion, attributed to Pagani 15th century
• Franciscan convent owned by the Tor
• Old Frankaville Castle Square, now Vittorio Emanuele II Square ( admire the two 12th-century entrance arches Porta dell’Orologio and Porta Roma)
• Clock Tower
• Villa Sagrini, with century-old park and Historic Cultural Fountain of the 1900s.

Local traditions:

Typical activities: Carpentry
Food and Wine: Grilled meats