Top 10 Castles around Mercatello Sul Metauro

Piobbico is a beautiful town in the province of Pesaro Urbino with about 1800 inhabitants. It is located in a valley between Monte Nerone and Monte Montiego and stands right at the confluence of two rivers: the Biscubio and the Candigliano. Piobbico is also known as the Land of the Ugly, due to the National Association of the Ugly, founded at the end of the 19th century to allow young women from Piobbico to find a husband; it currently has about 30,000 members and every year, on the first Sunday of September, the World Festival of the Ugly takes place. The festival is famous throughout central Italy and attracts a very large number of people each year.

The ruins of the Mondelacasa Castle (or Monte della Casa), called the Muracci, are located on the northern slopes of Mount Nerone, on the left bank of Val d'Abisso, at 707 m above sea level, about 1 km south of the historic center of Piobbico. (from COMUNE PIOBBICO 1999): Close to Mount Nerone stands a massive buttress whose base widens between the Biscubio torrent and the Petrello stream (Fosso di S. Maria) and carries the ruins of an ancient artifact on the summit. It was a castle, a primitive dwelling that the Brancaleoni, who arrived around the year 1000 in the Biscubio District, built and lived in until the mid-1300s. This is how our Costanzo Felici (1) describes it in a document from 1582:... climbing up to Monte Nerone a mile away on a rough and terrible hill and rock, there are vestiges of a superb, large and beautiful palace or fortress now in ruins, of which those (Brancaleoni) of Piobico were the owners. Built by Gentile Brancaleoni in the first half of the 13th century, it took the name of Mons Casa or Mondelacasa, today Muracci because of the ruins visible on the summit. Towards the middle of the 14th century, both because of the harshness of the place, difficult to reach when ... winter almost buried the tower under the snow, locked it under the grip of the ice, tormented it with the blizzard, confining it for months in isolation, and because of the need for other and more comfortable comforts, the two brothers Pazzo and Federico Brancaleoni decided to settle in the house that they had begun to build "in castro Plobici", on the hill to the right of the confluence of the Biscubio with the Candigliano, where there were already small houses piled up, that is, equipped with a watchtower with a Gothic arch portal to the north and a castle to the south-east. It is the place where the Brancaleoni Castle-Palazzo will develop and take shape over time. NOTE: (1) Costanzo Felici was born in the second decade of the 16th century in Casteldurante (now Urbania). However, he preferred to define himself as a native of Piobbico, where his ancestors had moved around 1330. He practiced medicine in Piobbico, Sant'Angelo in Vado, Pesaro, Rimini and Urbania. At the same time, he cultivated naturalistic and historical studies with notable results. He died in Pesaro on February 5, 1585. taken from: https://www.lavalledelmetauro.it/contenuti/beni-storici-artistici/scheda/11123.html

Now few ruins of a beautiful castle, located in a beautiful position, much of it collapsed but worth a visit. Easy to reach.

The name derives from a local family, the Pecorari, but it passed under the dominion of the Brancaleoni family first and then the Ubaldini family. Inhabited until 1930, it was partially dismantled to build a farmhouse that then fell into disuse. A path in the woods, within the Monte Nerone hiking circuit

Castello dei Pecorari is located on the southwest slopes of Mount della Croce at an altitude of 551 m, about 2.5 km N.W. of Piobbico. The ruins of the castle stand out on a hilltop covered by woods, clearly visible for those traveling along the road along the Candigliano valley. An ancient local family, the Pecorari, gave the castle its name. The first mention of its existence dates back to 1216, when it belonged to the Brancaleoni della Rocca; later (1481) it passed to the Ubaldini. Around 1930 it was partially dismantled to build a farmhouse. Around the year one thousand the Castle belonged to the Abbots of the monastery of S. Vincenzo del Furlo. later Gentile Brancaleoni added it to his possessions (13th century). In 1446 it was confiscated from Count Antonio Brancaleoni dei Pecorari and donated by Duke Federico Malatesta to his faithful captain Francesco Ubaldini della Carda. It remained the property of the Ubaldinis until 1816, when, after the abolition of feudalism, the last descendants sold it together with the lands to the noble Bartolucci family from Piobbico, who in turn ceded it to a Basili from Urbania.

The history of Piobbico is connected to the history of the Brancaleoni count family, which dominated these districts for seven centuries, in fact the Brancaleoni Castle developed in successive periods, from 1200 to 1700. Its construction began as a fortress and then assumed, over the years, the appearance and grace of a Renaissance palace, full of frescoes, stuccos, fireplaces, writings in Latin, Greek and vernacular, dates and names, which allowed to reconstruct the architectural history of this large container (135 rooms). Going up the medieval village you arrive at the square where the clock tower stands. The tower rests on a pointed arch vault dating back to the 1200s, therefore prior to the construction of the first nucleus of the building, evidence of an old watchtower. Towards the end of the 16th century, a tower was erected above the vault on which two clocks were placed, one on the facade facing the town and one on the facade facing the San Carlo courtyard. On the entrance facade, next to the tower, you can admire an elegant loggia which, together with the balustrade, make the facade less massive, giving the whole complex a refinement that is more suited to a Palace than a Castle. In fact, this immense building (135 rooms) has developed over the centuries, through a series of interventions, expansions, until reaching the current structure in which the Renaissance features prevail, but also presents evident defensive and military security elements typical of the late Middle Ages.

Ruin in a panoramic position on the northern side of Monte Nerone

It can be visited on weekends, thanks to a group of volunteers who accompany you on the guided tour. The garden is beautiful and the rooms are very beautiful with well-preserved furnishings. Worth a visit (but call to find out the times).