Corinaldo

Main sights

The walls of Corinaldo are 912 metres (2,992 ft) long and considered the most impressive medieval walls in the Marche region. They are the symbol of the city of Corinaldo.

However, the current walls are not the original ones. Indeed, as a result of the papal reconquest of the town, the papal army of Innocent VI, led by Galeotto I Malatesta, razed Corinaldo to the ground on August 18, 1360. Only seven years later Pope Urban V granted authorization for the reconstruction. The walls were built with the typical dovetail battlements that they still retain today. Between 1484 and 1490 they were extended towards the south with the Renaissance addition, more linear and characterized by corbels, erected by the famous Sienese military architect Francesco Di Giorgio Martini, until 1490.

The imposing walls preserve all the typical elements of the Medieval period such as murder holes, embrasures, loopholes, moats and towers telling the tales of glorious battles of the past.

Following the external path of the walls, it is possible to visit 3 of the 4 towers near the castle entrances.

The three entrances are: Porta Nova (New Gate), Porta del Mercato (Market Gate), Porta San Giovanni (Saint John's Gate).

Located at the center of La Piaggia (a suggestive staircase of 104 steps) there is a well. The actual well was rebuilt in the 80s in the same place where the original one was, built in the 15th century by the tyrant of Corinaldo, Antonello Accattabriga.

The original one was used as aqueduct and destroyed at the end of the 19th century, because it was no longer necessary.

The well is linked with a traditional folk story: a long time ago, a man was climbing La Piaggia staircase street with a sack of corn flour on his shoulders. Once he reached the well, he put the sack on the well's edge to catch his breath but the sack tumbled down into it. The poor man tried to save it and went down into the well himself. Starting from this point of the story, the oral tradition over time created many different versions of what happened next: the people watching the scene started to say that he was eating polenta in the well, while someone else thought that the polenta needed a few sausages to be more tasteful and others went to the well. …