TYPICAL ARTISAN PRODUCTIONS
The Marche region is a territory full of art, culture and ancient jobs, inherited from the past generations inside the artisan ‘botteghe’.
Raw materials are processed with ancient know-how, respecting the local tradition. From this practice, from this know-how, typical productions of the region were born, some even in the Middle Ages.
Ancient jobs and practices developed themselves in different fields, and in most of the cases gave birth to big companies, with well-known excellence in the international markets.
MACERATA AND FERMO
The territory between Macerata and Fermo, especially in the areas of Civitanova Marche and Montegranaro, represents one of the most famous shoe districts in Italy; while the processing of leather is typical from Tolentino area.
In the whole province of Macerata, particularly in the town of Mogliano, wicker, rush and bamboo are processed to realize bags, decor elements and different types of containers.
Moreover, the areas of Montappone and Massa Fermana are very famous for the artisan production of hats: in fact, in these places, the 85% of hats national production and much of the world one is concentrated.
ASCOLI PICENO
In the Piceno lands, there is a symbolic item of the local handicraft, the “tombolo“: a cylindric pillow that is used by the embroiderers with bobbin and pins, to create amazing laces made of linen, cotton or hemp, and golden or silver threads. The secret of this ancient job from the XV century is handed down only by the women of Offida, that you can find inside the “borgo”, working on the door of their houses.
In the medieval town of Acquaviva Picena you can assist live to the creation of the “pajarole“, baskets for fruits or linen realized by local women with agricultural processing waste: wheat straw, wicker and others marsh reeds.
In the Sibillini Mountains area, there is a town called “the town of coppersmiths”, Force. The name tells us about the ancient processing of copper, typical also in the towns of Ascoli Piceno and Comunanza. The most characteristic objects realized with copper is the “conca”, a bowl carried full of water on the head by women, with the help of a small pillow called “cercine”.
ANCONA
Castelfidardo is one of the world principal centres of accordion production, internationally appreciated and enriched by decoration and inlays that make them real pieces of art.
Jesi is famous for the goldsmith tradition, confirmed also by the origin of the town name.
Fabriano is the city of paper with both the industrial production and the artisan processing; here was invented the watermark technique typical of money and there is a museum of paper and watermark. In some laboratories, people can also buy precious handicraft papers.
PESARO e URBINO
Fano is known for the gold processing, thanks to internationally known artisan masters, who gave birth to original creations, as a result of shape researches and excellent knowledge of drawing and watermark techniques. In the city, there are also other materials processing like papier-mache, fundamental for the annual Carnival wagons production.
In the “Roveresche” lands, especially Fratterosa, the production of terracotta is very famous.
Another typical tradition with medieval origins is the majolica; thanks to Della Rovere family, it represents nowadays one of the most important trades in Urbino, Urbania and Pesaro.
Pesaro is also famous in the whole nation for the ceramic tradition, thanks to the fine decorations of Raffaello in the XV Century.
Thanks to the creation of a regional museum network, that hosts the artefacts and equipment and promotes the diffusion of artisan culture with the organization of summer laboratories, the ancient jobs of the Marche region haven’t been forgotten.