Italian little Italies: Treia, name of the earth

Jan 11, 2025 193

Dolores Prato wrote: "Treia shattered its history, the splinters sounded of broken echoes... the biggest pieces were used as building material, they also built the steps that climb up to the bell tower of the Cathedral". Twenty five centuries of history have left their indelible traces. The city of Treia with its thirteenth-century walls, Lombard towers, Renaissance and neoclassical buildings, is a maze of charming alleys and lanes that lead to the magnificent Piazza della Repubblica, which is like a horse-shoe surrounded by an aerial balustrade with a marble monument of Pope Pius VI.

Dolores Prato wrote: "hovering ... high in the air like an enormous ostensorium, at the bottom of which only heaven can be found."

A breathtaking panorama thats precious background is the neoclassical Valadier House, now home to the Georgic Academy, stands together with the Town Hall (XVI-XVII sec.) and the Church of S. Filippo with its fifteenth century crucifix and its statues of the Evangelists by Varlé.

In this part of Marche churches are both artistic treasures and custodians of works of art.

The Church of San Michele, in Romanesque style, with Gothic elements, stands in front of the baroque Church of Santa Chiara, in which a statue of the Madonna of Loreto is preserved. Legend has it that this is the original statue and that in Loreto stands a copy, which was placed there in order to preserve it from the Napoleonic raids.

The cathedral, designed by Andrea Vici, a pupil of Vanvitelli, holds a lunette by Pagani, a tablet by Giacomo da Recanati and a marble bust of Pope Sixtus V, a copy of which is part of a collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Leaving the apse of the cathedral you behind, you get to Porta Vallesacco, a national monument from the thirteenth century. This is where the Montecchiesi captured, using a stratagem, Corrado d’Antiochia, who was engaged in an epic battle, that was illustrated on the superb curtain of the Civic Teathre, by Silverio Copparoni (1865). Thanks to its frescoes it is a place that deserves visiting.

From Porta Vallesacco, a short walk leads you to the Santuario del SS. Crocifisso that was designed and built by Bazzana in the place where the Roman Trea rose. Copies of its relics are mounted on the façade of the bell tower. Legend has it that the Crucifix was carved by an angel, but for some scholars it reveals the work of Donatello. The face of Christ is very interesting as it shows three different facial expressions depending on the angle.

The name

“Both Treia and Rome have in common the mystery that lies behind their names. Rome masks the truth behind its real name, and we will never know what that name was, as we will never know what deity, troubled or masked, gave Treia its name... Treia’s name is surrounded in a hopeless mystery, the letters of which are almost the same as that of the earth (terra).

Dolores Prato (1892-1983), a writer who considered this city an essential element in her life, writes about the essence of this place in her her autobiographical novel "Down the square there is no one" (Knopf, 1977), she makes no explicit reference to the theory that the name of Treia probably derives from Trea-Jana, a greek-Siculan god that was venerated in the Roman settlement of Trea.

The product

The “Calcione” of Treia, a DOP product, is a typical Easter recipe, it is a sheet of pasta dough filled with a mixture of flour, eggs, pecorino cheese, sugar, oil. The external dough tastes sweet while the filling is savory; it can be appreciated as a snack or as a dessert.

Do not miss the Calcione Festival when you can enjoy it fried or baked, served with Verdicchio and Vernaccia di Serrapetrona wines.

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