Montottone

Between the Adriatic Sea and the chain of the Apennines stretch the fertile hills of ancient Picenum, intersected by rivers and streams. Between two of these, on a cliff, at an altitude of 277 meters, rises Montottone. Until the 15th century it had the name Mons Actonis (Mount of Attone), later replaced by today’s Montottone. In 1191 Pope Celestine III invested the Benedictine monks with temporal and spiritual dominion over Montottone; in 1221 the Patriarch of Aquileia ceded the castle of Montottone as a fiefdom to Peter IV, a Fermo bishop. In 1397 the Montottonesi rebelled against the municipality of Fermo; in 1405 they came under the rule of Ludovico Migliorati of Sulmona, and in 1415 they were besieged by the Malatesta of Cesena.

After Migliorati’s death they became subject to the Rector of the Church of the Marca, and in 1433 rule passed to Francesco Sforza. In 1537 Pier Luigi Farnese, having removed the government from Fermo, established in Montottone the Ecclesiastical State in Agro Piceno under the government of Cardinal Radoccio Farnese. In it were united all the Castles subject to Fermo and the country, for a good ten years, was the residence of the various governors who succeeded one another. Supremacy over all neighboring castles gave Montottone luster and prosperity. Witnesses of the important past are the remains of the mighty castle walls within which the town has remained virtually unchanged.

Monuments, churches

• Church of Our Lady of Grace, from its origin was built in the shape of a Greek cross, preserves on the main altar a 15th-century wall fresco depicting the “Virgin Enthroned with Child and Musician Angels.”
• St. Mary Help of Christians Church, of medieval origin, formerly called St. Mary of the Good Jesus Church. The entrance is decorated with a very rich terracotta portal dating from 1515.
• Church St. Peter the Apostle, this church in past centuries was owned by the municipality and had the title of Pievania. In 1762 it was rebuilt with the construction of the Great Collegiate Church.
• St. Francis Church, dates back to 1300, attached to the church is the convent of the same name.
• Torrione Porta Marina, the main access to the town that connected it to the city of Fermo through the Via Grande is called Porta Marina preserved intact in its medieval configuration until the entire 18th century.
• Cistern, built in the 15th century, in all the nearby castles there is nothing like it it was walled with a grandeur worthy of a great city.