It takes the name from the same name of the church, that people of Treia call their “mountain”. A mountain that reaches its higher point with the 824 meters of Monte Acuto. An inviting mountain with its scout camp, the area for the green itinerary, the picnic areas, the orienteering itinerary.

Immersed in the characteristic Mediterranean scrub, appear the rests of ancient ruins as the fortress of Monte Acuto castle, informally called by people of Treia Roccaccia that until now marks the border between the area of Treia and Cingoli. Many legends flutter on the castle, as that of the weaver, whom weaves in the basements with a gold loom, that of the chicken from gold eggs and that of the snake that guards the treasure in the devil castle. They are legends fuel by the personality of the man’s castle Grimaldo di Aureliano, real man of war whom laid waste the city with his troop, as testified a document of 1191 conserved in the Accademia Georgica.

Besides Saint Lorenzo church (with one aisle and a ceiling truss), it has recovered the hermitage of Santa Sperandia.

 

THE GREEN ITINERARY

 

Totally practicable by car. Coming from Treia, in the hamlet Saint Lorenzo it is possible to get onto the itinerary. If you make a detour on the left, you reach the rest area of Fondelci and to going on rising for about 1 kilometer, you arrive at Monte Verde, artificial pinewood: on the right there is  forestall gravel road that retreats like a ring in the pinewood. If, on the contrary, you go straight on, you reach a rest area with Percorso Vita, fire point and service. After about 1 kilometer, turning on the right, you arrive at the residential and touristic area of Monte Acuto. Continuing always in level, you arrive at Grotte di Santa Sperandia and the at the ruins of the ancient tower “La Roccaccia”.

 

THE BOTANICAL ITINERARY

 

Immersed in the green of Monte Acuto near the ruins of Roccaccia, the area offers an interesting botanical itinerary that you can carry out in two hours, the necessary time for an healthy walk. The arboreal essences are all listed for a total of over 40 species. In each table there are texts, drawings and photos that highlight the most important aspect of each species as the florescence typology, the reproduction forms, the main phytopathies. The list of phytopathies, particularly, is intentionally rich because the visitor can be aware of the state of environmental distortion, exactly throughout the recognition of these phenomenon in the daily environment. The itinerary, organized for interesting lessons of ecology and botany, is also an excellent opportunity for pupils and students to know the autochthonous flora.

 

DOWNHILL

 

In the area of Saint Lorenzo of Treia from time are practiced sports in  the open air, as Downhill and Bike out the track that today identify this area as a real Bike Park with various itineraries on different difficulty levels that attract hundred sportsmen and fans of these sports.

Also the national team of Downhill has trained in the track of Saint Lorenzo.

During the years are been organized regional and national competitions of Downhill with the participation always more numerous athletes from Italy, Switzerland and Spain. With the organization of sport events, athletes, families, team-managers and fans for a long weekend crowd all the accommodation facilities for tourists within a radius of 15 kilometer from Saint Lorenzo.

During the time the competitions organized in Treia have conquered the national survey, becoming in this way the point of reference for the all bikers of the Marche and of Central Italy.

Since 10 years in Saint Lorenzo takes place also the national competition of Gravity Day.

 

GROTTE DI SANTA SPERANDIA

 

THE HERMITAGE

The hermitage, selected by the Saint for her ascetic experience, is on the north side of Monte Acuto and it is an emblem of the man destruction in the Valle del Rio Laque and in the area of Roccaccia. Nevertheless, in spite of numerous quarries, the cottages built in an untidy way and the senseless interventions “remedial” in the cavity, the place is always the savage kingdom of the isolation loved by the hermits.

Since 1840 the hermit monk whom lived in S. Angelo wanted to build a small church for pilgrims. For make this used the material of the original building formed by three small rooms, at the entry of the cave that gave the hospitality for the penitence of the Saint. In 1970 someone thought to adorn the place with travertine slabs in the entry stairs, rebuilding the small church and widening the path. Near the cave there is a small rectangular hollow in the grave that assembles the percolation water: it is the Fonte Acitona or Acitosa described in the news. The tradition says that it was created to be used by the Saint hermit.

It is full also in the dry weather periods.

The ancient steep mule track that conducted to the hermitage, used also for the wood hauling, has been renewed with pieces of oak.

Today the hermitage is formed by a niche that closed partially the cave’s entry, deep 8-10 meters and high 3-5 meters.

The cave, built in a steep wall of Monte Acuto, overlooks the sheer space in the below gorge of Rio Laque, surrounding by holm-oak and hornbeam woods.

 

THERAPEUTIC HERMITAGE

 

The devotee use the water of Fonte Acitona to heal the diseases, especially for the headache. The veneration of the Saint is connected with miraculous virtues that she had when she was still alive. In fact she heals a lot of people from various diseases, especially women, then she raised a young girl and made many miracles.

 

THE SAINT

 

Sperandia was born in Gubbio in 1216 and died in Cingoli in 1276, in the monastery of Benedictine nuns of Saint Angelo, where she lived as an hermit after a long time  in the cave of Monte Acuto. Here she is buried and her body is perfectly untouched.

The tradition says that she had a vocation at 9 years old, against the will of her family. She dressed with pig-hide and an iron belt and she wandered along the “Appennino umbro-marchigiano” in order to search an ascetic life full of corporal mortifications and pains. People say that she went from village to village with tied arms, a veil that covered her face and the head strewn with ash. She spent the Lent without eating, but praying as Jesus did.

This doesn’t prevent her to participate at the life of her time: she is reminded for her reconciling role inside the many conflicts between the different factions of that age.

 

LEGENDS

 

The popular tradition underlines the many extraordinary episodes of her life: the most particular tells that the church and the monastery of Saint Angelo where lived the Saint necessitated of reparations and so some builders were assumed; it was winter and it was snowing in Cingoli and during lunch the Saint asked them if they needed something and they answered joking: «some fresh cherries! » They were dumbfounded when the Saint, after praying, she brought a basket of cherries: it seemed to be brought by an angel.

So, the  modern image in the cave represents the Saint with cherries in the hand to remind that episode.

Furthermore, it was said that along the valley floor of Rio Laque, before the road would be rebuilt and the mines reopened, it was possible to see on the stone the furrow of the Santa Sperandia’s truck, hauled by two suckling calves.

Among the woods of Monte Sant’Angelo, near the hermitage, an unsual stone symbolizes “la sedia di Santa Sperandia” and it is said that near there is a grave throughout which the saint entered in order to arrive at Cingoli monastery. However, a day a monk followed her, but he didn’t manage to find any entry in the stone. The cave, the truck hauled by the calves remind certainly to the prior chthonic cults of water and fertility, that then people has imposed on Sperandia. Not least the legend of the presence at Monte Acuto (similar in different parts of the Appennino) of a mysterious weaver that weaves incessantly with a gold loom in a grave, whose entry is protected by a snake, the “regolo”. To enter unharmed is necessary that the snake quench itself thirst, rolling up a nude and tense arm with which it is supported a glass of water, without fear and in silence. They are fragment of myths that remind to the ancient struggle with the old snake and to his winner, l’Arcangelo Michele, whom is celebrated in the cave of the opposite side.