Porta Marina is the eastern entrance to the Historic Center, also known as “porta a pede,” where the roads coming from the coast, from Fermo, and from the Ancona region converged. It too celebrates Sisto V with a significant and detailed inscription, which translated reads:

“Christ promotes the time of justice
Faith upholds the justice of Sisto
The Piceno receives the reward of virtue
Whoever acknowledges the benefits of the law
The world loves the ways of heaven.”

The justice of Sisto V had curbed the scourge of banditry, but upon his death, it resumed in the Piceno like a pernicious contagion. Due to growing concern and widespread fear, in 1590 Ser Diomede Vittorucci addressed the General Parliament: “For the safety of our city, the Magnificent Lords Priors must select at least 100 young men capable of handling arms, who shall stand guard both day and night…” At the time, Montalto counted just over 150 households, so it can be said that every family was involved in the defense of the community.

Porta Marina was also the starting point for the executioner’s procession: condemned prisoners, escorted by guards and attendants of St. Nicholas, were led to the top of the hill, formerly Montaltello, where the permanent gallows were installed. Late at night, it was also from Porta Marina that Cicco Spedaniero and Grifone di Benedetto, responsible for lowering the bodies from the gallows, carried them to the sepulcrum suspensorum—the pit of the hanged—at the foot of a votive shrine dedicated to the Madonna of Loreto.