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Province
The province
of Fermo is the fifth province of the Marches region, founded with law
11 June 2004, n. 147 (law), published in the Italian State official Journal
n. 138 of june 15 2004. The new province includes 40 municipalities,
for a complessive population of 171 tousand inhabitants and an extension
of 784,22 km² (219 for km²). The territory was included in the
province of Ascoli Piceno; it extends between the Tenna and the Aso valleys.
Almost hilly, it presents a developed agriculture both in the traditional
cultivations (cereals, olive tree, grapes, mustard) and in the new fields
(vegetables, fruits). The breeding of bovines and ovines is present, but
in modest measure and pricipally made by medium-small companies. Of remarkable
importance is the fishing above all for Porto San Giorgio. The most flourishing
food industries (i.e. canning and refrigeration) of the adriatic coast,
tied to the fishing activity, are concentrated here. Other industrial
activities to remark are those extractive (travertino quarries and, above
all, offshore methane silk) and buildings, but, in the first place the
footwear industry, than it is articulated in hundred of medium and small
companies, and whose main center is Montegranaro. The tourism, beyond
the artistic beauties of Fermo, counts in always greater measure on the
seaside resorts of the adriatic coast. In the province: Fermo (interesting
environment, Polar Museum),
The other principal centers are: Porto San Giorgio,Porto Sant' Elpidio
and S. Elpidio a Mare (Bucket Contest
with 14th century costumes).
Municipalities
Fermo - It is placed at 319
m a.l.s. on a hill between the valleys of the rivers Tenna and Ete Vivo,
few km from the Adriatic sea far. Agricultural and commercial center (cereals,
grapes, olive trees, fruit trees, vegetables, forages; cattle, bee-keeping)
with food industries, textile (cotton), metallurgical and shoe manufacturer.
Important city at roman epoch, during middle age was the greatest of Marche
and chief town of Marchia Firmana that extended from the Musone river
over Vasto (Chieti) and from Apennine mountains to the sea. During the
napoleonic age, was chief town of the Departiment of the Tronto river
and cities like Ascoli Piceno and Camerino was subject to it. City of
studies, can boast the most ancient university center, founded in 825
by Lotario I and continued through various vicissitudes till 1826. At
Fermo there is the richest library of Marche and of near regions. The
civic picture-gallery of Fermo is one of the most prestigious collection
of Italy. It founds worthy seat in the hystorical Priori Palace,
next to the famous "Municipal Library" and faces Piazza del
Popolo, historical centre of the old town. Its origins are of the
nineteenth century and it is composed essentially by works coming from
civic churches, forming a precious testimony of Fermo culture. The works
exposed (which are only a part of the great figurative patrimony of the
Municipality, have got other precious paintings to point out) are very
important and testify the high level of civilization and the same cultural
relationship that the town had during the centiries. The roman cisterns
are a magnificent architectural complex, unique in its kind and perfectly
conserved, the construction of which dates back to some time between 40
and 60 A.D. the access to this underground monument is in the steep and
suggestive via degli Aceti, characteristic medieval street in the heart
of the town. The ancient storehouses of roman building of the first imperial
age give hospitality to the Archaeologic Museum of Fermo. The wonderful
Piazza del Popolo was built at first by Alessandro Sforza. It offers to
the tourist a sight of rare beauty and architectural rigours; built around
this magnificent large square are the Priori Palace, the Palazzo
Apostolico begun in 1502 by Oliverotto Euffreducci and finished in
1532 ordered by Pope Clemente VII, the San Rocco open gallery,
built in 1528 having a little church of San Martino and tops the main
entrance of the Palazzo Comunale the Sansovino's grand statue (1590)
of the Bishop of Fermo who was to become Pope Sixtus V.
During the summer period the piazza plays host to Fermo's music festival
featuring some of the world's finest performers, as well as outdoor markets.
Montegranaro
- At 277 m a.s.l. on a height between the Chienti river and Ete Morto
torrent. Industries are principally in the footwear sector (250 small
enterprises approximately) and in the collaterals activities (articles
for footwear, paper boxes). Breeding (bovine and pork). There are frescoes
of the XIII cent. in the church of Saints Filippo and Giacomo.
Montegiorgio
- Placed at 415 m a.s.l. on a height to the left of the Tenna river. Production
and commerce of agricultural products (grapes, beets, vegetables, fruit
trees), bovine and pork breeding and poultry-farming are the main activities.
There are also small metallurgical factories and shoe manufacturer. It
conserves remains of its town-walls (XIII and XIV century) and
the ghotic-romanesque church of Saint Francisco, with a door of
the 1325 and frescoes of the XV century. In the territory has been discovered
a necropolis picena of VII-V century.
Porto San Giorgio - Situated
at 5 m a.s.l. on the adriatic coast, between the mouths of the Tenna and
Ete Vivo rivers. Risen in the Middle Ages as port of the inland city of
Fermo, it's now an active fishing port and a crowded seaside resort in
the summer. It owes some of its charm
to a few fine examples of the Liberty Style architecture that was much
in vogue in the smarter seaside resorts across Italy at the turn of the
19thC. Economy is based also on shoe
and wood manufacturer and foods industries (macaroni factories, oil mills).
A 13thC fortress, built by Lorenzo Tiepolo, later Doge of Venice,
stands close by the town's central square, and has fine towers and high
keep. Other monuments: the
17thC Communal Palace, the Pelagallo villa, that belonged
to Gerolamo Bonaparte, and the churches of the Suffragio (XVII
cent.) and of Saint George (1840).
To the south of Porto San Giorgio is
Pedaso, the Marche's "mussel beach" - these delectable molluscs are cultivated
on concrete pillars that lie just off its short, gravely beach. To the
north is the narrow beach of Porto Sant'Elpidio. This resort's main attractions
are its pine woods at the northern end and plenty of enormous shoe shops
(here we're in the heartland of the Marche's shoe industry).
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