If you go up the valley of the Metauro River from Fano inland, Fossombrone appears almost suddenly, between plain and hill, just where the valley narrows, closed betewwn the spurs of the Cesane and the steep side of the Colle dei Cappuccini and the area of S. Martino del Piano, where the history had begun in the II century b.c. whit the name of Forum Sempronii.
Looking from far off, the town appears charaterized by a thick sloping of roofs, among which rise the bell towers of the main churches, the front of some noble palaces and the wide perspective of the Corte Alta of the Montefeltro whit its airy open gallery. High above, on the top of Aldebrando's hill, are the ruins of the fortress belonging to the Malatesta-Montefeltro families, with its massive tower, looming over the roofs of the small houses underneath.
It is the Fossombrone of the Malatesta characterized by a levely cultural and economic life: the wool guild, the paper mills, leather, added to the flourishing agriculture and made the town the richest and most vital pole of the middle basin of the Metauro river. |
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