Francavilla d'Ete

Francavilla was born in 1140 out of an escape: the serfs of the counts of Gualdrama and Montirone left their masters and hid on Monte Tiziano, founding up there a settlement free of servitude, that is franco, and from that comes the name. The castle they built themselves is gone, but its plan is not: the main square has stayed oval because it follows the perimeter of the fortress. The second part of the name, d'Ete, was added in 1863 to tell it apart from its many namesakes, and it is lent by the Ete morto stream that runs below the hill.

In 1385 the condottiero Averardo della Campana arrived with four thousand foot soldiers and crossbowmen and took the castle; Fermo, to bring the village back under its own jurisdiction, paid three thousand ducats and freed it. Shortly afterwards, in 1413, it was Carlo Malatesta who attacked it with bombards. Of the defences three of the six towers remain and one castle gate, reworked until it looks like an eighteenth-century triumphal arch; the church of San Pietro, on the other hand, is a nineteenth-century design by Giuseppe Sacconi, the architect of the Vittoriano, and its façade was left half finished.