Castle walls

The construction of the town walls dates back to the early fourteenth century, when the castle of Massignano passed under the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Fermo by the will of Manfredi, son of Emperor Frederick II.

The appearance of the current typical medieval aspect of the village is therefore a little after the phenomenon of the fortification, historically ended in the middle of the thirteenth century, and that saw the populations of the rural villages tend to aggregate in fortified centers for reasons both defensive and of noble interest.

The structure, visible along the entire ring road, was built in stone and brick with ramparts, escarpments and buttresses. Better preserved is the south-western front that highlights part of a breaking tower of fourteenth-century matrix with anti-bombard scarpatura of the following century.

Worth mentioning, set in the maze of the historic center:

• Vicolo Mura, which houses a small open-air theater adjacent to the apse and the bell tower of the church of San Giacomo Maggiore, as well as a lovely viewpoint over the valley of the river Menocchia;
• Vicolo Forno Vecchio, with a characteristic postcard square;
• Vicolo Ghetto, so called because of the probable presence of some citizens of Jewish origin according to a document dating back to 1551; Spiazzetto degli artigiani, at the bottom of Via Montebello, where were present until the 60s of the last century numerous craft workshops of potters, carpenters and cordaries.