FERMO

Latin Firmum town and archiepiscopal see, Ascoli Piceno provincia, Marche regione, Italy. It is situated on a hill overlooking the Tenna River, near the Adriatic Sea. An ancient stronghold (Firmum Picenum) of the Picenes (early inhabitants of the coast), it was taken by the Romans in 264 BC and became a colony with full rights in 42 BC. Conquered successively by the Goths, Byzantines (AD 553570), Lombards, and Franks, it passed in the 8th century to the papacy. As the centre of the duchy and later the march (frontier borderland) of Fermo, it was the capital of a large territory from the 9th century until it was merged with the march of Ancona in the 12th. In 1549 it passed once more under the direct rule of the papacy, to which it remained subject until it became part of Italy in 1860. The esplanade on the hill summit, Il Girone, marks the site of a Sforza castle destroyed in 1446. At one end of the esplanade stands the cathedral (1227; rebuilt 1789), on the site of an early Christian church (with a 5th-century mosaic pavement), which, in turn, had replaced a pagan temple. Other remains include a Roman theatre, Roman aqueduct settling tanks, and short stretches of wall, pre-Roman and Roman. Fermo is the centre of a prosperous agricultural district, the Fermana. The town has a celebrated bronze foundry, noted for its bells, and manufactures cotton textiles. Pop. (1991 prelim.) mun., 34,434.