Ecomuseo della Valle dell'Aso

Tradition links the place name Montefiore to the cult of the Goddess Flora (Mons Floris), protector of the countryside, worshipped by ancient Italic peoples before the Roman conquest. A number of artifacts testify to the presence of populations as early as prehistoric times, which developed during the Roman era, as evidenced by the centuriations of the land and necropolises from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. During the Middle Ages the population from the countryside at the bottom of the valley moved to the ridge, founding fortifications and castles to better defend themselves from the threat posed by the Goths. Thus the two castles (“castra”) of Montefiore and Aspramonte were born in the area, converging in 1178 into a single nucleus that became a free commune. The town covers five hills: Menalo, Baraffio, Castello, Vittorino, and Aspromonte. In fact, the municipal coat of arms consists of five hills from which five flowers sprout and two rivers flowing on either side. Montefiore castle was long disputed between Ascolani and Fermani, until a solemn peace pledge was signed in 1421. As early as the early sixteenth century Montefiore could boast of the presence of municipal statutes, employed to collect the laws that governed the customs, duties, rights and order of the festivals that were to be commemorated throughout the year. An important point in this collection of laws and customs is the one that deals with the relationship between the landowner and the farmer, especially the labor contract and how to intervene in any disagreements. Montefiore was one of the first towns in Italy to be equipped, starting in 1897, with a system for extracting drinking water from the Aso River, distributing it to all homes by means of a modern aqueduct; the same municipal administration headed by Mayor Luigi De Vecchis, in the same year had an autonomous power plant built in Montefiore to produce electric light, when other larger towns still had gas-fired public lighting.