In 1473 Carlo Fortebraccio, fighting for Venice, won a victory over the Turks and was given a thorn said to come from the crown of Christ. He sent it home to Montone, and it has been celebrated on Easter Monday ever since.
His father was Braccio, the condottiero who in the early fifteenth century built himself a state across Umbria, Lazio and Abruzzo; on 28 August 1414 the antipope John XXIII made Montone a county and granted it to him in fief. Braccio died in 1424 at L'Aquila. In the church of San Francesco, held under Fortebraccio patronage, there are four cycles of frescoes. The 1,663 residents live on the hill where the Carpina joins the Tiber.
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📅 Every year, on 12 March
Montone celebrates Pope Gregory I on 12 March; but the town's most heartfelt feast is the donation of the Holy Thorn, on Easter Monday, instituted in 1473 by Carlo Fortebraccio.
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 Montone, but an easy day trip away.
