Maltignano

Maltignano had the same master for more than a thousand years. The name comes from a Roman, the duumvir Publius Maltinus Bassus, who after the Social War owned these lands: the ager maltineanus. Then, from the eighth century, a presumed donation by Charlemagne — who on coming down into Italy gave the bishop of Ascoli some castles south of the Tronto, among them this one, Ancarano and Faraone — made it a chapter barony, and the Chapter of Ascoli cathedral held the fief, with few interruptions, until 1818, that is until after the abolition of the feudal system. The castle probably came into being around the year one thousand, and served to defend that fief: of the old nucleus there remain pieces of the tower, stretches of the walls and the entrance of Porta Marina.

Geographically Maltignano lies on the wrong side of the river: together with Folignano it is the only comune of the Ascoli area that lies wholly south of the Tronto, on the ridge that divides the valley of the Tronto from that of the Vibrata. On the border with the Abruzzo comune of Sant'Egidio alla Vibrata there are two places called Piano Selva and Confini, which means boundaries. The parish church is dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie and goes back to the fourteenth century; the village keeps a relic of San Cristanziano in a silver case, and the cult of the saint, whose feast falls on 13 May, survives also in a medieval contest called the Palio degli Arcieri, the archers' palio. The largest hamlet is Caselle, at the foot of the ridge, near the industrial areas of Ascoli Piceno and Ancarano.