Porta Marina

Porta Marina

Porta Marina, also called “porta a pede” (the lower gate), is the East gate of the Old Town and here the roads coming from the coast, the city of Fermo and the Ancona border area joined. It commemorates Sistus V with a significant and detailed laudatory epigraph, which reads (translated): Christ promotes the time of justice Faith raises the justice of Sistus The Piceno receives the reward of virtue Anyone recognises the benefits of the law The world loves the ways of heaven The justice of Sistus V curbed the scourge of banditry, but after his death, it began to rage again in the Piceno area so much that, due to growing concern and widespread fear, in 1590 ser Diomede Vittoruccia ddressed the General Parliament: “For the safety of our city, the Magnificent Priors have to choice at least 100 young people, capable of handling weapons, who have to guard both day and night…” At the time, Montalto had little more than 150 households, therefore it can be said that each family was committed to the defence of the community. From Porta Marina the procession of the executioner came with the condemned to death, escorted by the guards and comforters of S. Nicolò, and headed towards the top of the hill, once called Montaltello, where the gallows were installed. Also from Porta Marina, late in the day, Cicco Spedaniero and Grifone di Benedetto came to lower the bodies from the gallows and deposit them in the sepulcrum suspensorum, the grave of the hanged, situated at the foot of a votive niche dedicated to the Madonna of Loreto.