Penna, the etymologists say, does not come from Latin but from Celtic and means a steep summit, as in the Apennines. The deed is dated the twenty-fourth of May 1248: the lords of the castle handed their lordship over to the inhabitants, who made themselves a comune. The nobles gave up the ground where their castle stood and promised to lower their towers and to obey the laws like everyone else.
A few years later, when the nobles went over to Manfred and the Ghibellines were about to take the town, the inhabitants set fire to their own houses and destroyed the fortress rather than hand it over to the pope's enemy. At the top of the hill, at six hundred and thirty metres, the walls of that fortress remain; in the village there is an eighteenth-century theatre, made entirely of wood.
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, on 24 June (29 August is also a feast day)
On 24 June Penna San Giovanni, a municipality of 1,154 inhabitants in the province of Macerata, celebrates its patron Saint John the Baptist; 29 August is also a feast day.
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 Penna San Giovanni, but an easy day trip away.
