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	HISTORY</div>
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	The marks left by the past seem to indicate the presence of Celtic settlements, Umbrian Etruscan, Roman, but surely the most obvious evidence comes from the Middle Ages. The first written document concerning Apecchio dates from 1077 and bears witness to the dominion over it of the Bishop-Count of Citta di Castello. The control by the Umbrian city lasted until the thirteenth century, when after long struggles prevailed over the town the family Ubaldini della Carda, from the nearby castle of Carda, on the slopes of Monte Nerone and intermarried with the Ubaldini of Pila lords of the Mugello This noble family ushered the town in the duchy of Urbino maintaining itself direct control over it. In 1514 the territory of Apecchio was elevated to the title of county and governed by its own laws until 1752 when the male branch of the Ubaldini became extinct. The Holy See resumed direct control over the territory, except during the French occupation during the Napoleonic period, until the unification of Italy.</div>
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	The current name of Apecchio has an origin rather debated. Many date back to the early Middle Ages, and seems to derive from apiculum (small peak), apicula (little bee), or ager pecoris (cattle field). Some others claim that the country&#39;s name derives from the ancient idiom Urbino apecchio (shack).</div>
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	MONUMENTS AND PLACES OF INTEREST</div>
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	The big bell, a bell tower dating from the fifteenth century clock with its grandeur is still the main entrance to the castle, above the arch you can see the coat of arms ubaldini family.</div>
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	Palazzo Ubaldini, badly damaged by an earthquake in 1781 and the constant wear and tear of time, thanks to the recent restoration has regained some of its former glory. Of particular value is the 1515 square courtyard surrounded by a portico of eight tall columns by Ionic capitals. Inside the palace is home to the museum &quot;of fossils and minerals Nero&quot; and the seat of the &quot;International Centre of historical studies geocartografici&quot; - research laboratory Editor Ernesto Paleani.</div>
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	The church of St. Martin, the interior of the church has a single nave, in a niche behind the baptistery is an eighteenth-century fresco depicting the baptism of</div>
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	The medieval bridge built humpbacked in the fourteenth century, is located in the lower part of town, overlooking the Biscubio River and was once the only access road.</div>
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	The Jewish quarter. The presence of a Jewish population in Apecchio is documented from the late fifteenth century. The statutes that Count Ottaviano Ubaldini della Carda gave the castle of Apecchio in 1492, are some chapters that govern the activities of the small Jewish community Apecchiese formed by thirty people. The Jewish community lived and worked in this country for over a hundred and thirty, until 1631 when, following the devolution of the Duchy of Urbino to the Holy See, the Jews were moved into ghettos of Pesaro Senigallia and Ancona. The alley of the Jews, 28 meters long and wide from a minimum of 37 to a maximum of 42 cm, is considered one of the closest among those existing in Italy. The &quot;air ride&quot; as it was also called, delimits the entire block of the right size from Jewish homes, where there is also a small courtyard where was celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), the synagogue and the oven.</div>
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	The surviving population found refuge in the valley, between the walls of the powerful Benedictine abbey of San Cristoforo del Ponte (sec. VIII) around which, around 1284, was built the new city, the foundation of which was entrusted by Pope Martin IV, the Provencal priest Guillaume Durand, then governor of Romagna and the March of Ancona. Durand entrusted the task of building the city of Bologna which was perhaps due to the technical solution with two arcaded streets that makes Urbania a kind of Bologna in miniature. In honor of Guillaume Durand gave the place its name Casteldurante.</div>
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	Entrusted lordship to the powerful family of Brancaleoni, the city was first Brancaleone, which succeeded, jointly, the sons Nicholas Philip Pierfancesco and Gentile. A Pierfrancesco, remained unique &quot;gentleman&quot; after the death of his brothers, and later the grandchildren Jailbird and Alberico (children of Nicola Filippo) and Bartholomew (son of Gentile), the only son predeceased his having Lamberto.</div>
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	The three cousins ​​did not want to govern together and peacefully divided the dominion: the brothers Galeotto and Alberico, who remained together, went the majority, including the town of Urbania, while Bartolomeo got Mercatello sul Metauro and Massa Trabaria. The domain of the two brothers, become tyrants, it was brief, because the population oppressed invoked the intervention of Urbino Guidantonio ladies da Montefeltro that after a short siege of the city forced them to flee.</div>
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	It was 1427 and since that time the fate of Casteldurante will follow that of the Duchy of Urbino, so much so that the lords of the latter is fregeranno the title of Dukes of Urbino and Casteldurante accounts. The branch of Mercatello on Metauro, however, died out with Gentile, first wife of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, which brought him the lands of his family, who remained the Montefeltro although this marriage no children were born.</div>
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	Under the Della Rovere, successors of Montefeltro in the Duchy of Urbino, the old exclusive &quot;Brancaleoni palace&quot; was restored and renovated by a team of architects, including Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Annibale della Genga and Paul Scirri, this joint scirrhus Scirri, who was the first master of Bramante architecture. The Dukes of Urbino used the palace as a summer residence and the ducal Barco as a hunting lodge. Only the last Duke of Urbino, Francesco Maria II della Rovere, lived permanently in Casteldurante transferring the ducal court, where he died and was buried in the Church of the Holy Crucifix.</div>
