Descrizione
San Costanzo, a charming village in the Marche region, boasts a history stretching back a thousand years, with its roots in the Iron Age. Between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, these lands were inhabited by the Piceni, a people devoted to agriculture, hunting and sheep farming, who left behind one of the most significant necropolises in the Marche region, which was partially excavated in the 1920s. During the Roman era, San Costanzo occupied a strategic position, as evidenced by the numerous archaeological finds unearthed there. It is thought that Roman garrisons, during the famous Battle of the Metauro against Hasdrubal, crossed these lands coming from Senagallica, today’s Senigallia.
In the 15th century, the castle of San Costanzo became an important stronghold under the Malatesta family, who erected the village’s defensive walls, which were reinforced in 1429 by the people of Fano to prevent a Visconti invasion. Between the 14th and 15th centuries, the village came under various rulers, but the urban consolidation and modernisation of the fortifications are attributed to Giovanni della Rovere, as indicated by the gun ports engraved with ‘IO DUX’. The walls, characterised by cylindrical towers and an internal spiral staircase known as ‘la lumaca’, display a coherent urban layout and functional design.
After a series of vicissitudes, in 1520 San Costanzo came under the rule of the Papal States, taking on the Renaissance layout still visible in some of its elegant stately buildings. The entrance to the village is adorned by the fountain in the square, built in 1904 to celebrate the first joint-consortium aqueduct. Built from local limestone, the fountain – initially criticised for failing to meet the water needs of the surrounding countryside – is now a symbol of the town, having been restored and fitted with a recirculation system. In Piazza Perticari, visitors can admire the bell tower – once part of the town’s defences – the collegiate church and the Malatesta walls, which bear witness to the historical and cultural significance of this village.
