Eremo di San Marco, Romanesque hermitage in Piagge, Italy.

The Eremo di San Marco is a Romanesque hermitage set into the rocky face of Colle San Marco, near Ascoli Piceno, where natural cave formations are joined with blocks of travertine stone. The rock itself forms part of the walls and ceiling, so the boundary between the natural hillside and the built structure is often hard to tell.

Cistercian monks founded the hermitage in the 13th century as a place of retreat away from the town below. In 1387, the Sgariglia family took control and converted the building into a church, changing the purpose of the space.

The church kept its dedication to Saint Mark after the Sgariglia counts converted the hermitage in 1410 and added a bell tower whose bell bore the letters of the Ave Maria in relief. The Ascoli family Tibaldeschi, related to the Sgariglia, built tombs here for its dead. The church also exercised the cura animarum, care of souls, an office that did not last long because the site was so hard to reach.

The hermitage is reached by a marked trail through the forest, starting near a restaurant area at the foot of the hill and marked with red and white signs. The path is steep, so solid footwear and enough time for the climb are worth planning for.

The hermitage is visible from Piazza del Popolo in Ascoli Piceno, keeping watch over the Tronto Valley for centuries. Its position on the rocky wall of Colle San Marco lets it see as far as the Adriatic Sea, a detail visitors often overlook when focused on the building itself.