Hotel Borgo Antico

Very friendly & knowledgeable tourist office

by Trekki

I cannot praise Fabriano’s tourist office and initiatives high enough!! The receptionist at Hotel Colegio Gentile suggested that I check there for information material and the like and how glad I am that I did. Many tourist offices worldwide can learn from them (the lousy one in “my” Darmstadt included).
The girl at the tourist office was very much surprised to see a non-Italian tourist visiting her town in April and she gave me tons of leaflets and brochures about Fabriano, its surroundings, Marche in general (including an excellent map of Marche with descriptions of villages, towns and sites to see and city maps of Ancona, Pesaro, Urbino, Macerata and Ascoli Piceno on the back) and a very intelligent little city map with information about Fabriano (photo, it has the size of a credit card when folded). All in English by the way (and available in Spanish, French and German as well). And all for free!!! She also gave me a preliminary print with opening hours of museums, churches and concerts of the week I was there, apologised that opening hours would vary due to the ongoing renovations and restaurations and told me that this sheet is being issued per week. Based on this she told me which sights I should visit in mornings and afternoons.
Well, what can I say: before you set out to see anything in Fabriano, pay a visit to this tourist office. You cannot miss it, it is at Piazza del Comune, underneath the loggiato (see main photo).
Opening hours: daily: 9:00-12:00 and 15:00-19:00.

Free guided tours are offered each Saturday and Sunday, by the way. Tours are from 9-11 in the morning and from 15-17 in the afternoon. For reservations, the following phone number is given on their website: 848 800819/0732 709480 or they ask to send an email to: iat.fabriano@regione.marche.it

Fabriano’s tourism website has a nice download section, by the way. Please see here for the city map for download and mp3 information (English, spoken by a Briton, and Italian) about the paper museum (2:34 min) and a welcome message (2:55 min).
The website has much more interesting information about the surroundings (see menu “Gentile’s land”) and a wine and food section with recipes of the region. Another museum which I would have loved to visit, unfortunately was yet not open while I was there, but should be now. It is the Museo della Farmacia Mazzolini Giuseppucci, located just a few metres to the north (and then left hand side) of Palazzo del Podestà’s archway. Fabriano’s website has an email adress to contact them, but the tourist information will most probably also help about opening hours.

Local festivals:
The disadvantage of travelling in months like April is that none of these magnificent local festivals are being held, so I have yet another reason to come back.
Palio di S. Giovanni Battista is being held mid June (their website has the 2008 dates, but it is worth to check later for 2009 updates). This is one of the many Medieval festivals with flag throwers, artisans’ exhibitions, races, flower festivals (infiorata) and of course delicious local food.

Oh holy watermark (and paper)

by Trekki

Some very clever but obviously completely uninformed person once wrote that the first watermark was invented in Bologna and this was copied then into almost all English websites. So most of the Wikipedia descriptions are wrong here (except the Polish, Portugese and French and of course Italian versions). Try to find a museum for watermarks in Bologna and you know what I mean… haha.

Well, the watermark was invented in Fabriano in 1282 as it was the centre of papermaking since early 13th century. The invention was very clever: they did stitch a thin wire on the wire mesh of the screen (like in photo 4) on/through which the paper slurry is being scooped. Consequently, the layer of paper fibres was thinner at these parts and one could see the design when holding the paper against a light source. The early designs were very simple (photo 1) but became very elaborate over the time (a fleur de lis, photo 2, and horses, birds and more, photo 3). Mid 19th century, three-dimensional designs could me made with a positive/netagive technology where the design was scratched into either wax or carved on a hard surface (mostly wood). This skill became so popular among Fabriano’s paper makers that they still make much fascinating watermarks of all kind, like part of a Michelangelo work in photo 5 (which is a bookmark, sold in the museum).

The Museo della Carta has a very fascinating huge exhibition of the several watermarks which were invented in Fabriano for letter paper, banknotes and more. A little bit is explained and shown also on their website:
artistic watermarks,
engravers’ workshop (links to engravers’ workshop and modules in the menu left hand side). They still have the old screens with the early designs!! And as they have many guided tours per day where they show how paper and watermarked paper was being made, they produce a lot of paper sheets per day. Some of these are not recycled (to get back into the paper slurry) but sold in the shop. My first two photos are close-ups of the sheet of paper I bought there. This is, by the way, a paper which was not flattened so it shows the screen pattern as well.

(so much for the sheer nonsense information that watermark was invented in Bologna….)

Watermarks today, by the way, are very widely used for luxury and other paper (for letters, restaurant menus, charters, certificates and the like) and also in banknotes. The techology is mostly done with machines nowadays (lasers engraving the designs into bronze plates), but often also still by hand. I once had the priviledge to see this all at the German high quality paper manufacture Louisenthal (thanks to ES and HM for making this possible :-))

Beautiful frescoes everywhere

by Trekki

If you are like me and like to wander around the backstreets of towns and villages, I can highly recommend to do this extensively in Fabriano as well. I was amazed of how many beautiful partly old frescoes I saw at walls or in little shrines. Many of them have religious themes, mostly the Madonna (photos 3-5), some have reference to the art skills of Fabriano’s people and I even saw a very modern fresco-mural in a vault leading to a courtyard (photo 1). I especially liked the one in photo 2, which shows the skills of “alfresco” painting. This is located just behind the loggiato (between loggiato and Palazzo del Comune).

Fabriano - oh holy paper and watermark :-))

by Trekki

"- where the watermark was invented in 1297"

Imagine you have started your long needed holidays in Italy. Imagine in the early part of these days you are in a rather unknown little city in middle Italy and it rains cats and dogs. But you feel happy, you like it there, you even plan to stay one night longer than intended. If you have this picture – then you roughly get the idea why Fabriano was a highlight even despite the bad weather. Ah, such a nice town this is, and much more reasonable than the places I’ve been so far.

But – it is not only a nice and friendly village in the south western part of Le Marche but also the centre of oh holy paper. And that’s how I found it while I prepared my “Umbria” holidays. I was looking up the surrounding area of the villages I planned to visit in Umbria and came across the name “Le Grotte di Frasassi”. I had never heard of these but what the websites described sounded perfect, as I like caves and this one was described as the biggest and most beautiful of whole Europe. Then I checked where about I might stay for visiting the caves and found a town called Fabriano close by. I checked on google and… couldn’t believe my eyes (and that I’d never heard of it before): Fabriano is the place on this planet where the watermark was invented – as early as 1293!! And it is the centre of paper manufacturing in Italy, and even more specific, where the paper for Italian Euro banknotes is made. I can write that without revealing secrets, as it is also mentioned on the video, the paper museum sells. As I have a professional interest in these things, it was most logical that I would also visit the paper museum. Oh how less did I know of how fascinating it would be before I set out to visit Fabriano.

Ah yes, the caves – these were the second highlight of my stay here. It is a bit of a drive to the north, but if you approach the caves from the west (Genga), then you will additionally be awarded with a drive through a marvellous gorge, carved by the Esino river, the one who was responsible for carving the caves.

I was a bit amazed that nothing has been written about Fabriano and the surroundings so far, at least not for the destination Fabriano itself (maybe it is hidden in Italian or Marche pages). So I try to do my best, although I have to say that not everything was open when I was there in April 2008. Too much has been damaged during the fatal earthquake of 1997 (the one that did huge damage to the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi). But this will change, it changes constantly. You should contact the very friendly and very competent tourist office in Fabriano for actual information about open churches and museums.

.

.

.

All pictures have been taken by me, if not marked otherwise.
Please do not use any of them without my permission.
The same applies for my writings here.
Thanks.