The origins of Gabicce Mare

Gabicce Mare's appearance today is the result of more recent events but its roots are historically closely linked to Gabicce Monte. The existence of a parish community on this promontory, gathered around the church of San Ermete that still stands today at the entrance to the village, is documented as far back as 909. At the time, the top of the hillside was probably already fortified given that in 998, the expression "Castellum Ligabitii", named after the faudal landowner Ligabitio, appears for the first time in a Papal Bull.

The municipality of Gabicce was founded at the beginning of the thirteenth century and over the years the territory and its castles passed under a succession of different rulers including the Archbishopric of Ravenna, the Malatesta, Sforza, Montefeltro and Della Rovere families and finally, the Papal States. The village was closely linked to historical events surrounding the town of Pesaro up until 1539 when the castle and its territory were granted in feud to Orazio Floridi of Fano.

The territory around Gabicce has always drawn admiration and enthusiastic praise as a letter written in 1549 by Veronica Coradella, Countess of the Gabizze, clearly shows: "In the surrounding area there are an infinite variety of vegetables and cereals, flowers and violets, thousands of scented shrubs and well-known officinal herbs too numerous to count. In our towns and villages there are places that are no less beautiful and fertile and no less clear and deep than lakes Averno o Benaco..." In 1686, the village had 337 inhabitants who lived mainly on the hillside. This pattern did not start to change until the beginning of last century and in fact, the plains were not populated until the years just preceding the Second World War. In 1942, the town hall was transferes to Gabicce Mare.