La fortezza di Bastia: dalla difesa di proprietà fondiarie alla vigilanza armata della costa nord-marchigiana

Abstract

The research examines the history and different roles that the small fortification called “Bastia” has played through the centuries. It is located at the mouth of the Cesano on the north coast of the Marche. It was built around the turn of the 14th century by the Malatesta family of Rimini, to which the Pope had attributed the lordship of Mondolfo. The fortified building was intended to defend the territory subject to the castle. This continued when it and the surrounding lands became property of the St. Marks’s Commandery of the Knights Malta’s Order, contributing also to face the Ottoman assaults or raids by corsairs and pirates coming from the Eastern Adriatic regions. We used bibliographic, cartographic and archival documents along with some surviving testimony to reconstruct the evolution of this unique structure within the political, social and economical contexts of the past. The progressive abandonment, due to changing historical conditions, has led to the ultimate demise of the bulwark. The only surviving part are the massive walls, now incorporated in an rural building of the same name that among other things still marks the adjacent territory.