| Description: |
Several are the evidences of the Picenian civilisation starting from the VII century B.C. and merging with roman ones first and medieval ones later in time, thereby suffusing the area with a strong sense of historical continuity.
All the area around Motelparo has been forged by the Lombard influence, and the name itself is there to prove it, coming as it does from the medieval castle that the Lombard leader Elprando had built. The monks of the Farfa Abbey inherited it, made it bigger and fortified it.
At the beginning of the second millennium, Motelparo, along with Smerillo and Motefalcone Appennino, made up the most important district of the Picenian area belonging to the Farfa Abbey.
In the XIII century the small town set itself up as a free Commune on the Guelph side, thereby receiving pertaining privileges and indulgencies that helped the village grow socially and economically, so as to be dubbed magnifica comunitas.
When Pope Sisto V founded the Diocese of Montalto, Montelparo was deprived of its privileges, thus beginning to lose its former importance.
The medieval urban layout o the town has been left untouched and the current urban area retains its original plan. The surrounding area is mostly devoted to cereals production, as well as to pig and sheep breeding, with animals raised in the most natural environment and producing top quality meat using traditional butchery methods. The unusual local ‘museum of the old wheeled itinerant crafts’ is definitely somewhat of a curiosity.
Text by Fabio Santilli
Translation by Gianfranco Martorano |