TOLENTINO
Tolentino
rises at 224 meters of height on the left bank of the Chienti
river in the territory of Macerata
and not far away from the Park of the Sibillini Mounts.
The territory of Tolentino turns out to be inhabited since
the Paleolithic but it is with the Picens
that can be dated the beginning of its recent history (VI
sec. b.C.). Of this period have been recovered numerous
tombs.
With the battle of Sentino (295 a.C.)
and the defeat of the Italic Union Tolentino passed under
the infuence of Rome
becoming Municipium with the name of Tolentinum.
After a period of development in Imperial age the city was
victim of the barbaric invasions and subjected
before to the power of the Church that made of it a episcopal
center and then to the Longobard Reign (752).
Returned to the Roman Church after the invasion
in Italy by the Franks, Tolentino flourished
again in the XI century becoming free Comune (Municipality
- XII sec.) and knowing a period of economic development.
It passed therefore under the dominion of powerful nobles
families as the Da Varano and the Sforza.
Returned again under the administration of Rome,
the city was the theatre of the advent of the Napoleoniche
troops and their definitive defeat: in 1797
in fact was signed here the Treaty of Tolentino
between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pio VI, dealt that imposed
heavy custom offices to the Church and determined the end
of the Papal State. The Napoleonic parenthesis was closed
in 1815 (2 and 3 May), when the troops of
the king of Naples Gioacchino Murat, Napoleon's
brother-in-law, fought and lost with the Austrians troops
nearby the Rocca della Rancia (Rancia Fortress) decreeing
the end of the French dominion and the re-anexation of Tolentino
to the papal territory until the moment of the unification
of Italy (1860).
Tolentino distinguished itself during the Second World
war in the fight against the Nazis becoming one of
the Italian Cities decorated to the Military Valor during
the Liberation War.
Between monuments of Tolentino not to be missed a visit to
the Basilica di San Nicola da Tolentino
with Agostinian convent and Laurenzian library and to the
beautiful Rancia's Castle, quadrangular
shaped with town-walls with battlements and three angular
towers, today seat of the Archaeological Museum.
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