Pioraco is a ''
comune
A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...
'' (municipality) in the
Province of Macerata in the
Italian region
Marche, located about southwest of
Ancona and about southwest of
Macerata.
History
The territory of Pioraco was settled in the
Neolithic Age, as shown by the remains of a
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
sanctuary on the top of Monte Primo (late 11th-early 10th centuries BC). In
Roman times, Pioraco was a settlement on a branch of the
Via Flaminia
The Via Flaminia () was an ancient Roman roads, Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to ''Ariminum'' (Rimini) on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans had f ...
, with bridges, temples, public edifices and an aqueduct.
In the Middle Ages, it housed a castle which was a residence of the
Da Varano family, lords of the nearby
Camerino. The presence of paper mills, still active today, is attested from 1346.
Main sights
*
San Vittorino:
Pieve or parish church with baptistry, documented from 1119, built atop the remains of a Roman temple, using
spolia. It houses frescoes and baptismal font from 1646.
*
San Francesco: a
Romanesque-style church completed in 1327, with a polygonal apse. The interior was remade in Baroque style: it houses an ''Annunciation'' attributed to
Arcangelo di Cola and a ''Via Crucis '' by
Francesco Mancini. The annexed convent has a frescoed cloister.
*
Santissimo Crocifisso: a church built in Lombard-
Gothic style. It is home to a Crucifix attributed to Girolamo di Giovanni.
*
Madonna della Grotta: small 18th-century chapel/church built in a niche in the rocks, used as hermitage. It has a 15th-century wooden statue of the "Madonna with Child".
*
Roman Bridge.
References
Cities and towns in the Marche
{{Marche-geo-stub