Fermo is a small town located on the slopes of the Tabulo hill, facing the Adriatic and the valleys of rivers Tenna and Eta. From this priviledged spot, visitors can take in the breathtaking view framed by the sweet embossments, typical of the Marche landscape.
Owing to the fact this town dominated for centuries the surrounding lands down to the coastline territories comprising San Benedetto del Tronto, it became one of the landmarks of the Adriatic.
The importance it covered in the past remains to date a token of its beauty and art richness preserved in the old town centre, still endowed of that special medieval quaintness.
Its all particular pyramidal urban scheme enclosed in the town’s majestic surrounding walls, is featured by Fermo’s strikingly beautiful Roman-Gothic cathedral, more commonly referred to as the "Duomo".
The duomo’s origins date back to the iron age and are attributed to populations of Piceno, originally Sabines, who, as the legend has it, were conducted to these lands by a mythical woodpecker.
The settlement was subdued to the Romans in 268 B.C. and became a colony by the name of Firmum Picenum. An active participation of this settlement’s people in the Punic wars that followed one another, granted it to be upgraded to the rank of Roman municipium as soon as 90 B.C.
This florid period is witnessed by important tokens such as the Cisterne Romane, Roman water tanks, which can be visited in the town centre and a number of finds of that period which are kept in the archaeological museum.
After the surrounding lands were assigned to Roman veterans, an imposing colonisation took place which was to mutate the physical structure and the political organisation of this territory for a long time.
The spreading of Christianity and the subsequent crisis of the Roman empire took their toll on Fermo, which suffered destruction and loss, especially during the Gothic-Byzantine war.
The town finally came back to some glory around 580, when it was annexed to the dukedom of Spoleto and was shortly after advanced to dukedom itself.
With the arrival of the Francs and German emperors, Fermo entered into the Church’s sphere of influence, event that made it possible for the town to expand its territory gaining the new name of Marca Fermana.
Once it became a free municipality, in the XII century, the city imposed its rule over the majority of the surrounding castelli, managing to establish a true and proper State.
During the XIV century many esquires took possession of the town in the most varied ways. From  the mercenary Da Monteverde to Gentile da Mogliano, up to Francesco Sforza, who was fought off in 1446 by a fierce popular insurrection which caused the destruction of the fortification on the Girfalco.
With Giulio II’s papacy, a series of Renaissance works on the piazza started and ended only during Pio V’s papacy when the square took on the typical medieval look and the workshops lined corso Cefalonia, the main alley where the important noble families resided.
In the first half of the XVI century, Fermo countervailed the Pope, who in 1550, with his power and army convinced the fermani, thus are called the people from Fermo, to request as the town’s governor his own nephew, who led the town until 1676, when he was succeeded by the appropriate “Fermo congregation ".
In 1584 Pope Sisto V, who had already been Fermo’s bishop, elected the city to archiepiscopal See and renovated the university.
Following 1797’s Tolentino treaty, Fermo became county town of the Tronto district and then the Apostolic Delegation See. Seized by Austrains it returned under the papacy’s rule, maintaining an administration and a cultural role. And despite it being comprised in the Kingdom of Italy and deprived of its Province status, it nevertheless continued to be the landmark for all its former provincial territory.   

Every year, between the end of July and mid August, Fermo hosts the Palio dell’Assunta horse race.  Already quoted in a manuscript, known as the Missale de Firmonibus, dating back to the 1436 and now kept in the Diocesan museum, the Palio involves the ten contrade, town districts, in a series of events which can arouse strong emotions in the citizens, who challenge each other for the Palio, the drape, which, every year, is depicted by a famous artist who, by his work, evokes the town’s devotion to the Virgin Mary.
At this time, the town is wrapped in an elegant and sumptuous 1400s setting with period parades, folkloristic performances, typical food displays, ceremonies before the town authorities and, naturally, the spectacular horse race which sees the contrade competing for the Palio.
The accuracy with which the period costumes, the settings, the food specialities and the atmosphere of the celebrations are prepared and the enthralling competitiveness of the race among the contrade takes place make the Cavalcata, the horse ride, and the Palio dell'Assunta a unique event. 

Monuments