Castelferretti

Machine-translated from the Italian article

Castelferretti (Castalfrett in the Gallo-Picene dialect) is a hamlet of the Municipality of Falconara Marittima, in the Province of Ancona, in the Marche, located in the lower valley of the Esino River. The construction of the castle, around which the hamlet's first urban core later developed, dates back to 1384-1386 and is linked to the Ferretti counts family who, starting from the original Alsatian locality of Ferrette, from which they took their name, had settled in the area since the 13th century. Indeed, in a document of 1255, Antonio Ferretti is mentioned for the first time; he is generally recognized as the founder of the family line. A valiant warrior of Swiss-German origin, he is said to have come from Germany to Italy around 1225 to enter the service of Pope Gregory IX, who rewarded him with the gift of extensive landholdings between Falconara and Chiaravalle, in a place called "Piana dei Ronchi" (that is, an area cleared of woodland to be brought under agricultural production).