Forte Malatesta, Renaissance fort in Ascoli Piceno, Italy.
Forte Malatesta is a Renaissance fort on the left bank of the Castellano River in Ascoli Piceno, in the Marche region of central Italy. It was designed by the architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and is recognizable by its star-shaped layout, which was typical of military construction of that era.
A structure stood on this site in Roman times and was later taken over and modified by the Malatesta family, the lords of the region in the medieval period. In the 16th century, Pope Paul III Farnese ordered its transformation into a fortified garrison, which gave the site much of the shape it has today.
Inside the fort, a museum displays objects from early medieval noble burials, including jewelry and weapons found in the surrounding region. Seeing these items up close gives a sense of how people in this area honored the dead centuries ago.
The site sits near the river and is easy to reach on foot from the center of Ascoli Piceno. It is worth giving yourself enough time to explore both the fort itself and the museum inside, as the two together cover a fair amount of ground.
Inside the fort complex stands a twelve-sided church called Santa Maria del Lago, built in the 1500s while the original defensive structure was already in ruins. A twelve-sided religious building is very rare anywhere in Italy, making this small church an unexpected find within a military site.
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