The sanctuary stands on hillside which runs down from the medieval village of Monte Rinaldo (Fermo) towards the central valley of the Aso river (location “La Cuma”, 350-360 meters above sea level). Discovered in 1957 and partially excavated several times in the following decades, since 2016 the area has been the object of a fresh investigation jointly run by SABAP Marche and the university of Bologna (DiSCi).
The sacred area developed between the Second and First Century BCE. The final layout had at its centre a temple in the Tuscan order – from which some of the important surviving decorations in terracotta are on display here, together with a sacellum containing a basin. Both constructions were at the centre of a piazza bordered by porticos. On the west side of the sacred area a new building was discovered between 2018 and 2019 and is still under excavation.
A considerable number of inscriptions discovered during the course of the latest investigation at the site have revealed that several cults were practiced within this sanctuary. Evidence has been found of the presence of Jupiter, Hercules, Vesta and Apollo, permitting an accurate reconstruction of the historic and cultural developments which brought about the construction of a sacred site in rural Picenum, a site which ranks as the most eloquent expression of Italic Hellenism and colonial “Latinity” in the entire Adriatic region of Central Italy.