The original name of the town was Montalboddo, then in the 1881 the
name was changed in Ostra, like the ancient roman city located near the
modern town of Ostra.
Ostra is a town and commune of Marche, Italy, near the modern Ostra
Vetere, south-east of Senigallia. The origins of Ostra are lost in a
remote past full of legends and traditions, mystery and folklore, facts
and discoveries. The fact that until 1881 the town was called Montalboddo
or Monte Bodio certainly gives rise to ambiguity. According to legend,
after the battle in 410 AD when the town was destroyed by the Visigoths,
the population of Ostra fled to the hills owned by the citizen Bodio,
stayed there and built a new village (hence the name Monte Bodio). Besides
legend, excavations and discoveries confirm, however, that the ancient
Monte Bodio in fact descended from an Roman Municipium called Ostra,
and once the authenticity of the artefacts had been ascertained, the
town council decided, at the end of the XIX° century, to give the
town back its noble, original name: Ostra. The signs left by history
are a few centuries more recent, dating back to medieval times when written
documentation showed that Ostra (or rather, Monte Bodio) belonged to
the Exarcate of Ravenna.
