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Apecchio (Pesaro province)

A town of the northern Marche: 43°34N 12°25E. Altitude: 490 m Population (2003): 2100

[A view of a small town of 2- and 3‑story buildings by a river, in densely wooded countryside; the view is partly obscured by the ribbed brick pavement of a bridge leading you over that river into the town in the background. It is a view of Apecchio, in the Marche (central Italy).]

Over the medieval bridge and into town: a quiet early spring morning in Apecchio.

Apecchio is a small town, on the Biscubio River 11 km upstream from Piobbico, in a fairly remote area of the Apennines; just how remote may be gauged by the fact that it is the largest comune by area in Pesaro province: its 103 km2 give the township a population density of just 21 — which for Europe is quite low, and even in the States, it's only about that of Oklahoma.

[ 5/4/05: 1 page, 4 photos ]

Apecchio's most striking monument is not a church or a castle, but the 15c bridge you see above, which for centuries was the main entrance into town.

Churches of course aren't lacking: SS. Martino e Giovanni Battista, now the parish church, houses among other things a 16c Baptism of Jesus and two Romanesque stone lions from St. Mary Major in Rome, given in the 17c to Paolo Ubaldini, count of Apecchio, by his fellow countryman Pope Clement IX, born in Urbino, only 25 km NE of here; the older parish church, S. Caterina (13c), curiously sited on a steep slope, is a split-level structure; it has recently been restored. The church of S. Lucia, with a 16c Madonna della Vita, and the outlying church of SS. Filippo e Giacomo are also of interest.

[ 5/4/05: 3 pages, 7 photos ]

Small, medieval, attractive, and irresistible by the side of a road, S. Croce is the one church I did see in my quick visit of the town.

The Ubaldini family, as counts of Apecchio, left behind them an attractive 16c castle, now serving as the town hall: it includes a very elegant colonnaded courtyard by the Sienese architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini. And though Apecchio is small and remote, this same Palazzo Ubaldini houses one of the better paleontology museums of Italy, the Museo dei Fossili e dei Minerali del Monte Nerone, with an astonishingly large collection of ammonites — beautiful objects even if they were of no other interest at all.

Apecchio is one of the many little places in central Italy to which I hope to return some day, and when I do, you can expect more on this site; but in the meantime, for further, more complete information, I have to close by suggesting the sites linked in the navigation bar below.

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