Montecosaro

The old village sits on the hill and still has the face of an early-medieval castle, with towers along its fourteenth-century walls. In the square is the Teatro delle Logge, almost certainly medieval, so thoroughly rebuilt in the eighteen hundreds that no trace of the original is left; but in 1568 Enea Galizia and twelve other conspirators were hanged from its gratings, after the revolt against the Cesarini had failed. The oldest arms of the comune are those drawn on the frontispiece of its statutes of 1597: five green mounts on red, a gold cross on the middle peak and two white lilies springing from the two mounts beside it. A title had been given to the place by Alexander IV in 1255: Monte fedele, the faithful mount, for the proofs of its attachment to the Holy See.

Montecosaro has two halves: the old centre up here and the Scalo down in the valley, where the work is. And down there, beside the Chienti, stands the basilica of Santa Maria a Piè di Chienti, which the first certain documents name in 936: it is one of the most typical examples of Cluniac architecture in the Marche. They call it the church of the Annunziata, and the story told about that name is a strange one: a pope, they say, was thrown into a well of the monastery and buried there, and after three days rose again. On 25 March there is a procession, and the streets are dressed with paper flowers. In the town hall, which was an Augustinian convent, a Roman sarcophagus is kept, and in the church an organ of the late seventeen hundreds and a gilded silver cross with relics set into its arms.