In our imagination, each of us, as children, lived in an imaginary, fairy-tale castle. That enchantment lives again every time that, now adults, we come across fortresses, towers, bastions and Renaissance walls, while wandering around the Marche region, that political and social history has handed down to us. There are 542 sites registered in our region by the Italian Castle Institute: a network whose nodes are located on the ridges and tops of the thousand hills in the area.
The genesis of the city
Castles, during the Renaissance, were the generators of the new form of city, and even today they constitute the civil heart of the community. This is the case of Rocca Costanza in Pesaro, built by Costanzo Sforza between 1474 and 1483. Another example is the Rocca Roveresca of Senigallia, built to a design by Luciano Laurana and Baccio Pontelli in 1480, on the remains of a Roman fortification and of the fourteenth-century Albornoz fortress, later residence of the Della Rovere family. In Fano, together with the expansion of the city walls, the Malatestas were responsible for the construction of the imposing Rocca Malatestiana, a fortified rectangle delimited by corner towers, with the Keep, the Porta Maggiore and the Bastion. And in Ascoli, another bastion, of a completely different shape, the Malatesta Fort, adapted in 1348 by the ferocious Galeotto Malatesta into a stronghold of his power, is the last link in the geographical chain that begins at the extreme northern limit of the Marche, in Gradara.
The ancient fortifications
Here, in the rooms of the castle, furnished with evocative intent in the 1920s by the engineer Umberto Zanvettori, the name of another Galeotto resonates, the one who, in Dante’s Inferno, Francesca da Rimini identifies with the literary pimp of her love for Paolo . But there is no ancient city in the Marche that does not retain fortifications and walls, from Castelraimondo to Urbisaglia, from Porto Recanati to Serra San Quirico. Offagna dominates the dense defensive network of Ancona from above, which included twenty castles, and perpetuates a tradition with the Museum of Ancient Weapons and, in summer, the Medieval Festivals. Inland, on the slopes of the Apennines, safeguarding the Misa valley, all nine castles of Arcevia, still inhabited, deserve a single tour, each of which retains its tradition and the charm of villages perched overlooking the valley. And on the sea, in Porto San Giorgio, the Rocca Tiepolo stands out, defending the port, on a small promontory, with a pentagonal plan, with a high central keep. To the south, from Castelraimondo to Arquata and from Lanciano to Acquaviva Picena, the Intagliata of the lords of Varano extends: medieval watchtowers transformed into fortresses and fortified cities, to consolidate and protect, starting from the fortress of Sfercia sul Chienti, the power of Camerino, downstream protected by the Rancia castle. Further ahead, the Pallotta castle in Caldarola stands out. And then, continuing inland, up to the foot of the Sibillini, in Pievebovigliana, the palace of Beldiletto, transformed by Giulio Cesare da Varano at the end of the 15th century into a luxury residence, brings us to meet, in the frescoed rooms, a host of mysterious knights. This is another castle that has become a noble residence, like Castel di Luco, in the Ascoli area: stop and sleep once, to enjoy the security that the historic walls convey.
Defense tool
Once a sign of strength and an instrument of defence, castles today represent the custodians of the past and of cultural values. In this sense, the Rocca di Sassocorvaro is an undisputed symbol of the new role, which during the last war was elected by Pasquale Rotondi, superintendent of cultural heritage of our region, as a safe for the artistic jewels of the national heritage. Who were thus saved for us posterity. The fortress was chosen by Marcello Verdecchia, president of the Marche section of the National Institute of Castles, on the 60th anniversary of its foundation, to celebrate the XXV National Days. Tomorrow and Sunday, extraordinary openings, a conference in the small theater of the Rocca, and many free guided visits to this masterpiece by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, theorist of defensive engineering and Renaissance starchitect, who designed, among other things, the Ducal Palace of Urbino , the fortress of Cagli, the government buildings of Ancona and Jesi, the castle of Mondavio for the Della Rovere family.
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