Castel d’Arno, a little hamlet fortified since 1059, rose up in the area of the ancient Umbrian-etruscan-roman city of Arna, was built between the V and the IV centuries b.C.. The name of the city derives from the root arn meaning river flow; actually the city was built between two big rivers, Tevere and Chiascio, and nearby flows also a little creek called Rio d’Arno.
The castle maintained during time past its role of strategic outpost over the Salara Fabrianese street, connecting Gualdo Tadino to Ancona. In 1461, Pope Pius II rested there, feverish, while he was going to Ancona, with his entourage and army.
Between the XVI and the XVII century, Castel d’Arno became a refuge for outlaws and bandits, captained by Francesco Alfani - who made the castle his fortress - and, as other hamlets of the area, it witnessed acts of banditry till the second half of the XIX Century.
In the inner side of the entrance door’s façade, the remains of a fresco representing the Virgin with child and the Saints Lucia and Caterina d’Alessandria, maybe by the Peruginian painter Giovanni Battista Caporali (1476 - 1560). From the upper part of the castle, a pleasant panorama on the Chiascio valley and on Martani mounts.