Attractions and Places To See around Piobbico - Top 20

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

Beautiful town, worth taking a break

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June 24, 2023: from the end of the pastures, the road leading down to the valley is closed. The views up there are breathtaking, but the trek is not trivial. There are various exposed points where I got scared. I saw that the path that would have led down to the valley was also a narrow road with a precipice on the left. It's not for everyone, go on if you're self-confident of your abilities. I underestimated him and in the end I found myself crawling back in places. But I'm quite scared of heights so if you're more adventurous than me go!

Another fantastic panorama, in spring autumn with green grass and perennial wind even better, be careful from the end of the pastures you descend into the valley, very difficult, heavy and very long slope.

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

After various hairpin bends, you arrive by car as far as the small village of Pieia and park. The entrance to path no. 20 is found at the entrance to the town on the right next to the picnic area along the fence of the bowling green. The first section is all in the shade and flat, with glimpses of the surrounding peaks and then uphill in the last one. Along the way you come across the ruins of an old house and the Grotta delle Nottole, and then the arch of Fondarca, a natural rock arch with high and steep walls which was the entrance to a cave which collapsed in ancient times. Return to the same path