Mondaino stands on a ridge between the Foglia valley and the Valconca, on the border of Romagna and the Marche, and for centuries it was a military outpost fought over by Rimini and Urbino. The name first appears in a document of 1069, which reads «castrum meum quod vocatur Mons Dainus», but the soundest theory traces it to the Gothic Mundawins, from Mund, fortified place: and indeed on the map drawn by Leonardo da Vinci the village is marked as Monda. The Malatesta fortress, with the Ghibelline crenellation Sigismondo gave it, was the hub of a circuit of thirteen towers.
Precisely because it stood in between, Mondaino was where the two lordships came to sign their peace treaties: the pact of 1393 between Carlo Malatesta and Antonio II da Montefeltro, and that of 1459 between Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta and Federico da Montefeltro, broken within months. Federico had called the castle «a strong and important place, that on no terms can be taken», and in 1463 he took it almost without a fight. Today the Palio de lo Daino re-enacts that peace, the fortress houses the town hall and a museum of Miocene fossils, and the round piazza built between 1818 and 1820 is known to everyone as the frying pan, with via Roma for a handle.
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📅 Every year, on 29 September
On 29 September Mondaino celebrates Saint Michael the Archangel; since 1988 the village has also hosted the Palio de lo Daino, a historical re-enactment among its districts.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Mondaino, but an easy day trip away.
