Esanatoglia

The name fuses two histories: Aesa, a Roman settlement on the Esino, and Santa Anatolia, the third-century martyr whose cult took over as the town's identity through the medieval period. The current name was made official in 1862. The first surviving document mentioning the place dates to 1015, recording the foundation of the monastery of Sant'Angelo by Count Atto and his wife Berta, the most important religious house in the area for the next two centuries.

The village sits at the source of the Esino, on the border between Marche and Umbria. The main street runs between two fortified gates, and the seven towers visible from above stand over a lower village still marked by its medieval walls and public fountains. Above the settlement, on Monte Corsegno, a hermitage looks down over the roofs. The town's layout still reads as what it was: a river's source point fortified and settled in stages, its religious geography written into gates, walls, and towers that have outlasted the parishes that built them.