| Description: |
Sarnano is situated at 539 m above sea-level on a hilltop overlooking the river Tennacola. The name comes from latin Sarnus, to be connected with the stretches of land that the veterans of the Roman emperor Augustus were given by him in this area. After a short period of Lombard rule and the years in which the noble Brunforte family imposed its dominion upon the small hilltop town, Sarnano becomes a self-governing commune in the XIII century and its still intact historical town centre dates back to that period; it was eventually subsumed within the possessions of the Papal State until the creation of a united Italy.
Its abundance of thermal waters made Sarnano a renownd wellness resort, one the most appreciated in the whole region. Its position, at the foot of the Sibillini Mountains, also made it a popular winter and summer tourist resort, where one can find ski-lifts and slopes, as well as an ideal departure point for exciting excursions.
Middle in the square of the town’s upper part you can find an ‘object’ the origins of which are yet to be identified and which has buffled observers for the last decades: a man-sized stone called ´L´uovo di Sarnano´ (“The egg of Sarnano”), with a kind of tank-like cavity carved on its summit. By comparing it with a similar object found in Umbria, recent studies suggest that the stone could have functioned in ancient times as a celtic astronomic observatory.
Text by Fabio Santilli
Translation by Gianfranco Martorano |