Esanatoglia
The “filetto”city
The Name
The name of the Esino river derives from word Esus, who was the Celtic god of war.
On this river’s shores during the Roman Age, the first settlement was established, called Aesa.
The present name Esanatoglia was given by a historian in 1862 combining the names of Aesa and Anatolia, replacing the medieval name of Saint Anatolia, that derived from the patron Saint Anatolia’s name who was a martyr in the 3rd century AD.
History
- 1st century. B.C., the Latin epigraph, walled up in the basement of the bell tower of Pieve, refers to a place called Aesa that might be the archaic village that became a Roman colony in the Augustan period.
- 1015, in the first document referred to Saint Anatolia was written how the monastery of Sant'Angelo had been established, as the will of Count Atto and his wife Berta.
- 1040, the second written note cites some facts about the Castrum Sancte Anatholiae. The Church of Pieve, was mentioned in a note from 1180. In it, the Count Malcavalca, the Lord from the Castle of Saint Anatolia (the fact never confirmed) gave as a donations the half of its possessions of the church to the Monestery of Sant’Angelo, that in the meantime became the most important religious settlement in the whole valley.
- 1211, after the end of the Malcavalca feoff , and the one of Ottoni of Matelica that lasted three years , the guelfs of Camerino with the powerful family of the Varano ruled for three more centuries , wanted by the same citizens of Saint Anatolia, because they were sure to have more freedom under a government geographically further from them.Under the Varano power, Saint Anatolia had never totally lost its autonomy: the first statute laws were established in 1324. The town was not touched by wars and sacking for a long time; in 1443 it was conquered by Francesco Sforza, helped by people of Matelica.During the war, the Monastery of Sant'Angelo with its famous library was destroyed.
- 1502, the dominion of the Varano, dispossessed by the Pope Alexander VI of Borgia, had been followed by the power of the Church; since then the town of Saint Anatolia followed the events of the Pontifical State, with periods of prosperity, as the visible architecture in the historical centre still testifies and those of decadence.
A case of treasures in the Marche
Today, still closed by the castellane walls that are lapped by the Esino river, the village represents a sort of footbridge that takes to the principal road called Corso Vittorio Emanuele, which is intersected till the top of the Parish of secondary streets, that brings to the districts, each with its own small square. Seen from the top, Esanatoglia seems looked over from the seven bell towers that cross the Corso from Porta Sant'Andrea to the upper part, from where you can go out through Porta Panicale, towards the uncontaminated valley of St. Pietro. Because of its lengthened shape Esanatoglia has been called in the past the “filetta city.”
In the most ancient part, the Pieve of Saint Anatolia bell tower stands out, risen on the tomb of the martyr and already mentioned in 1180. It introduces a splendid stone portal of the fourteenth-century and a Roman epigraph on the basement of the bell tower that, according to historians, would be the prove of a Roman settlement at the time of Augustus.
The Fountains of San Martino, once called Fonti di Fuori Porta, represent a rare example of the fourteenth-century hydraulic work, perfectly in function today. The Varano building, the actual centre of the Municipal district, preserves an interesting painting called ” The hunt of the devils of Arezzo”, and a knight parade to the noble plan. The Church of Saint Maria Maddalena is a small case of treasures, that also keeps a valuable painting, the Crucifixion, on the most important altar, two dead natures of Flemish origin and a wooden Choir decorated and painted with scenes of the life of tha Saints, where you still can find the grilles that protected the Clarisses so that no one could see them. The Church of Saint Maria of Montebianco includes a small rural temple containing the Vergine Maria with Child, work of the local painter Diangeluccio Diotallevi, while in the Church of the Cappuccini there is a fresco that represents the Madonna del Latte.
The town plannig structure of Esanatoglia is closer to the city model than to the rural one, even though the economy turned upon agriculture. The Castle was separated in three inside districts : the first walls of the 11th and 12th century (the Parish, the Middle and Staint Martin) and outside ones (Sant'Andrea, with the two villages of Santa Caterina and San Rocco) are incorporated in the second chain of walls in the beginning of the 14th century. The defence was submitted to the Rocca and to other further fortifications: the Rocca of Santa Maria in Monte that dominated the valley of the Passo di Palazzo(called today Fonte la Torre), the one on the slopes of the Corsegno Mountain that seemed to be observing the nearby valleys and where the Eremo of San Cataldo watches silently over the village and the third one of which there are no traces .You get to the walled town going through four doors: the Panicale, the Mercato, Portella and Sant'Andrea. The Porta of the Village belonged to the first chain of walls and Sant'Andrea district was incorporated into the fortified nucleus. In the 14th century, along the present street of Portella, right beside the walls and the river, traffic of goods was already developed.
With its bell towers, the Tower of Sant'Andrea, the medieval or renaissance buildings , the fifteenth-century furnace, the clattered little roads,we can say that Esanatoglia is a village that many peoplle do not know and it includes the best of Marche, a region that you will never finish to discover. The artisans, for example, once they finish their job, want to have fun, going to the theatre where dance and music shows are on.
We conclude the visit to the village exiting the Porta of the Pieve towards the valley, where we can see the ancient paper mill and one of the first tanneries of the industrial era witnessing the hard-working spirit of the local people.
Local Products
The valleys give mushrooms and truffles, the vineyards produce a good wine called the Verdicchio of Matelica, while the tradition of the pork- butchering allows to taste the “frostingo”, a dessert that recalls the ancient tastes, with pig blood. Local dishes
The pigskin with beans is an ancient recipe that should be eaten with toasted bread and potatoes used to harden the juice.
The lunch finishes with some dry anise sweets (“favorite”), or with the “ciarle”, a kind of wafer mixed with eggs, flour and anise.
