Sant'Elpidio a Mare is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the

province of Fermo The province of Fermo () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Marche region of Italy. It was established in 2004 and became operational in 2009. Its administrative centre and provincial capital is the city of Fermo (population of 37,995 inhab ...

, in the

Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...

region of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Geography

Sant'Elpidio a Mare is located on a ridge of Marche Apennine, elevation above sea level, between the lower river valleys of the river Tenna and Ete Morto, from the Adriatic Sea.

Toponym

The historical name of locality is documented by an 11th century parchment as "Sancto Elpidio Majore" to distinguish it from other places in Sant'Elpidio Morico Brand Fermana. The abbreviation of "majore" was later changed to "mare" ("sea" in Italian).

History

The town occupies the site of the

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

city of ''Cluana'', destroyed by the

Visigoths The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian military group unite ...

in the early 5th century. In 887 here a large Benedictine Abbey was founded in 887; the medieval borough rose around it as ''Castello di Sant'Elpidio'', starting from the 11th century.

Main sights

*Imperial Abbey of Santa Croce al Chienti. This is a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

convent founded, according to tradition, in 887 on a pre-existing religious building. The heyday of the abbey was between the 10th and the 12th century in which it was enlarged and renovated in

Romanesque style Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Ro ...

. *Church of Madonna dei Lumi *Church of Sant'Elpidio Abate *Sanctuary of Madonna degli Angeli *Church of Sant'Agostino (14th century) * Basilica Lateranense di Maria Santissima della Misericordia, Sant'Elpidio a Mare *Remains of of the 13th and 14th century walls; only three of the seven original gates are visible today *''Torre Gerosolimitana'' ("Tower of the Knights of Jerusalem"), built by the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...

in the 16th century *Town Hall (14th century)

Notable people

* Edoardo Pacini (born 1991) - footballer

References

External links

History of the town
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