Poggio San Marcello

Poggio San Marcello is the smallest municipality in the province of Ancona, on a hill on the left bank of the Esino. People have lived here a long time: father Agostino Grazzi found the grave of a Picene warrior with his armour, brooches, dagger blades and pottery, and in 1956, while the drains were being redone inside the castle walls, early Christian mosaic tesserae turned up by chance. In 1261 the castle was already a settled and fortified place; from 1301 it had to answer to powerful Jesi. The town hall, inside the walls, is to a design by Andrea Vici.

From 1929 to 1946 Poggio San Marcello did not exist: it was annexed to Castelplanio and reduced to a hamlet of it. That did not go down well, and the rivalry with the neighbours produced stories the village still tells. The best is the one about the new bell: the people of Poggio, proud of it, wanted to carry it through the streets of Castelplanio, a sort of parade. It could not be done, for practical reasons; so they carried through the clapper alone, which was already enormous to look at — if the clapper is that big, they said, imagine the bell.