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HISTORY OF THE VILLA

The Balì Museum, inaugurated on 16 May 2004, is located inside an ancient and majestic villa in the municipality of Colli al Metauro, about 15 km from Fano. Surrounded by greenery, the building stands on a hill that embraces a wide panorama, from the Metauro valley below to the Adriatic sea in the distance. Restored on the occasion of the opening of the museum, the Villa del Balì still retains the charm of an ancient eighteenth-century noble residence. Its four towers were already in the 16th century a perfect observation point from which the owners, the noble Negusanti, loved to discover the secrets of the sky. Since then, the history of the Balì has been linked to the passion for science and astronomy, so much so that today it hosts a modern “science center”.

THE ORIGINS

The history of the building is long and articulated. In this place a temple dedicated to the god Mars was erected in antiquity. Over time, the transition from Mars to Martino was easy: historical evidence speaks of a chapel dedicated to San Martino as early as 1165.

THE ASTRONOMER BISHOP

At the end of the fourteenth century Giovanni Filippo Negusanti, bishop of Sarsina, restored the building which thus entered the sphere of his family to remain there until the eighteenth century. The most important character for this place was undoubtedly Vincenzo Negusanti, bishop of Arbe and Dalmatia, an ecclesiastic of great authority and culture (he was present at the councils of Rome and Trent) and an expert in astronomy. Precisely to observe the stars from the four towers, built specifically for the purpose and now disappeared, Negusanti retired to the Villa of San Martino until his death in 1573.

THE BALÌ ARRIVAL

Due to the constant presence of Count Gian Gastone Marcolini, Grand Prior Balì of the Order of S. Stefano, the building soon took the name of Villa del Balì. The construction of a crypt under the lawn in front of the villa is due to him. The crypt is made up of four Lorraine crosses arranged to form four right angles. At the back there is an apse with a barrel ceiling on which stands out a huge red and white painted cross. In the center of the floor is a blind well. The whole structure was used for the initiations of the chivalric order of which Marcolini was a member. Today the crypt is unusable and closed.

FROM THE MODERN AGE TO THE PRESENT DAY

In 1839 the building passed to Maximilian of Leuchtenberg and then, in 1852, it became the property of the Jesuits of Fano, who used it as a holiday resort for collegiates. Subsequently, the Valerio decree of 1861 suppressed religious institutions and the assets of Saltara passed to the Collegio Convitto Nolfi. A long row of century-old cypresses still marks what was once the main access road to the villa. Perhaps precisely in relation to this exceptional naturalistic aspect, on 19 October 1899 the first tree festival established by the then minister Guido Baccelli was celebrated in the park of the villa. During the Fascist period the building passed to the G.I.L. (Gioventù Italiana del Littorio) of Pesaro which should have dealt with an enhancement of the structure which, however, did not take place. When the Second World War broke out, the Villa del Balì hosted many “displaced persons” from nearby Pesaro, people who had left their homes in the city to escape the bombing (in fact Pesaro was close to the Gothic line). From this place the German command observed all the war operations and the movements of the Allied troops in the underlying valley of the Metauro and on the hill of Montemaggiore. In 1944 the Villa del Balì definitively became the property of the Municipality of Fano; in 1972 a restoration unfortunately modified some internal structures, but it was providential to avoid the complete ruin of the building.

Today, the building is granted on a thirty-year loan to the Municipality of Saltara (now Colli al Metauro) which has made it the seat of an interactive science museum with a strong astronomical imprint, following the tradition started 500 years ago by Vincenzo Negusanti.