| Description: |
The frightful earthquake that the area suffered in 1799 distroyed most of the evidences of the town´s medieval past, leaving only trace of its original urban structures and layout.
Little is given to know about the origin of its name: during the Middle Ages, the village was certainly owned by the Casauria Abbey, not unlike most of the nearby villages. Only in 1240, by Pontifical concession, it was placed under the rule of Camerino and remained such until the unification of Italy. The remarkable hamlet called Montalto is divided into three smaller areas: Villa, Valle and Tribbio, where the partly restored ruins of the ancient castle of Montalto lie. In the hamlet called ´Monastero´, other archeological sources provide evidence that this area was already inhabited in the third and fourth century A.D. Worth mentioning is an XI century Benedictine Abbey probably founded by Saint Romualdo.
Cessapalombo, however, owes much of its fame to the last representatives of the ‘carbonai’ of the Sibillini, craftsmen who are still engaged in the age-old craft of charcoal burning. The nearby woods are rich in a delicious kind of black truffle.
Some itineraries are definitely note-worthy: among these, the one at Fiastrone gorges, that of ‘Grotta dei Frati’, the one called ‘Lame Rosse’, the one at Col di Pietra Fortress and the evocative trail of the ‘carbonaie´.
Text by Fabio Santilli
Translation by Gianfranco Martorano |