While travelling in the territory of Terre Roveresche, the attention is very likely to be captured by two tall and slender contours raising on top of the Orciano hill: the Civic Bell Tower and the famous Malatesta Tower guarding the village inside the ancient castle. The Malatesta Tower was built in 1348 by Galeotto Malatesta as a lookout to control the daring Orcianese people, guilt of having raised against the authority of the Signoria and the heavy tax burden. The beautiful tower shares its foundation with the underlying Santa Maria Nuova church, built in 1492 based on a project by Baccio Pontelli. The church inside is sober and elegant, with the delicate white plaster and the bizarre series of both open and blind oeil-de-boeufs on the dome and on the vaults, but what mostly strikes the visitor is the beautiful entrance. The portal is sculptured in white stone in the shape of a tabernacle, with two grooved columns bearing Corinthian capitals and precious low relief ornaments, which create the impression of entering a Grecian temple. Someone supposed that Raphael’s hand might have designed the portal, even though no document supports this hypothesis. Further ahead, towards the pretty little square dedicated to Giò Pomodoro, there is the Rope and Brick Museum, born to keep alive the memory of traditions and artisan activities typical of Orciano’s story. The first hall of the museum is dedicated to the production of bricks, the fruit of earth, fire, water and human knowledge, several examples of which are on show, further to a rich historical and photographic documentation of the ancient Furnace. The second hall is dedicated to the work of rope makers, an artisan excellence of Orciano. The ropes they produced supplied the whole naval industry of Marche. Raw hemp was carded and spun by means of perfectly kept machines, involving in the job expert craftsmen along with their children and grandchildren, who helped them in the simplest stages of the manufacturing activity, ready to learn its secrets and to inherit its tradition.
Orciano di Pesaro