Marche: Central Italian Region on the Adriatic — Geography, History, Culture

The Marche is geographically divided into three parts. In the eastern part, on the Adriatic Sea, there are coastal plains with the three cities of Ancona, Pesaro and Fano. To the west, in places just behind the coast, there are the hills with the ancient cities of Urbino and Ascoli Piceno. The border to Umbria is formed by the Umbrian-Markesian Apennines, whose highest elevation is the 2476 meter high Monte Vettore. To the southwest is the Abruzzo Apennines.

Place of pilgrimage

The town of Loreto, south of Ancona, is one of the most important places of pilgrimage in the Catholic world, thanks to the Loreto pilgrimage.

Rivers

The great rivers of the Marche flow through the valleys named after them from the Apennines to the Adriatic Sea. From north to south, the Foglia flows into the port of Pesaro, the Metauro east of Fano, the Cesano near Cesano, district of Senigallia, the Misa in Senigallia, the Esino near Falconara Marittima, the Potenza near Porto Recanati, the Chienti south of Civitanova Marche, the Tenna near Porto Sant'Elpidio, the Aso near Pedaso and the Tronto south of San Benedetto del Tronto as the border river between Marche and Abruzzo into the Adriatic Sea.

More than 30 sites (as of 2005) of artefacts from early human history in the Marches range from the Upper Paleolithic (Contrada Paradiso in Jesi, Dorsale di Cingoli, Monte Conero, Ager cuprensis, "La Quercia") to the Middle (the Warm Period site of Boccabianca, sites in the Esino and Potenza Valleys) to the Upper Paleolithic. There is a large temporal gap between the settlement by Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthals of the Moustérian and Upper Palaeolithic Cro-Magnon. During the last cold period, human traces are also found during the time of maximum ice extent, namely at the eastern edge of the Marrow Chain. It was there that a particularly large number of people lived, whose traces can be found in caves and abri, but also in the Rossa and Sentino gorges. The Mesolithic, the phase of the last hunter cultures that existed for several millennia after the last cold period, on the other hand, is represented by only one site, Pieve Torina.

The Marche area was inhabited by a farming population in the Neolithic period. Important sites are the settlements of Monte Cappone, Castel Rosino or Coppetella. Finds at Tolentino prove Mycenaean influence from the early 2nd millennium BC onwards. In the early history, which can now be grasped by written sources, the Picenes lived in the Marches and the northern Abruzzi. Their culture was characterized by extensive trade. Goods from the Etruscan area came to the Marches, as did Attic pottery. Outstanding here is the alabastron with black-figure painting of the 6th century BC, discovered in Monteroberto, or a kylix attributed to the painter of Ancona (460 BC), which comes from the necropolis of Pianello. Syracuse succeeded in founding a colony with Ancona. Around 500 BC, the Hercules of Castelbellino was one of the oldest bronze sculptures in Italy.

In Roman times, the territory of the Marche belonged to Umbria et Ager Gallicus as well as Picenum. The Picenians, allied with Rome in 299 BC, were subjugated after an apostasy from the Romans under Publius Sempronius Sophus in 269/68 BC, and the capital of the Picenians, Asculum, was occupied. In the course of the allied war of the years 90 to 89 BC, the Picenians received Roman citizenship.

The term "Marche" originated from the name Mark for a border area of the Holy Roman Empire. The name Marca first appears in the Carolingian period, as Marca Fermana for the mountainous part of Picenum, Marca Camerinese for the more northern area that included part of Umbria, and Marca Anconitana for the former Pentapolis.

In 1080 Robert Guiskard received the Marca Anconitana as a fief from Gregory VII, to whom Countess Matilda of Tuscia ceded the Marches of Camerino and Fermo. In 1105 it is documented that Henry IV granted the entire territory of the three Marches under the name of Marca Ancona. Afterwards it again fell to the Church and was administered by papal legates as part of the Papal States.

In the north of the region, from the Middle Ages onwards, the Duchy of Urbino was established, which existed as a sovereign state until 1631.

The Marches became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860. On November 4/5, 1860, 133,807 eligible voters voted for the annexation to Italy, only 1212 against.

With the Lateran Treaties of 1929, the Holy See officially relinquished its claim to the territory of the former Papal States and thus also to the Marches.