Ancient Bibracte was an important fortified settlement (oppidum) of the Gallic tribe of the Aedui. According to the Roman general Gaius Julius Caesar it was their largest and most prosperous city.[1] This city was situated on a mountain called Mont-Beuvray, which reaches a height of over eight hundred metres. People…
We set out from our hotel on the Place du Président Wilson and entered the centre of charming Dijon. Our plan: a walk along the most interesting churches of the city. There happen to be quite a number of those, although some of these buildings are no longer in use…
The fine arts museum in Dijon is housed in the former palace of the Burgundian dukes. It opened to the public as early as 1787, even before the French revolution, which makes it one of the oldest museums of the country. A first surprise for me was that I found…
The churches of Sassoferrato were beautiful and its museums interesting, but the real reason I wanted to visit the town was that in its vicinity the famous ancient town of Sentinum was situated. This was the site where, in 295 BCE, the Romans and their allies defeated a coalition of…
One of the most important museums in Sassoferrato rather oddly does not use the word “museum” in its name. The Civica Raccolta d’Arte is, apparently, first and foremost a raccolta or collection. The predominantly religious works in the collection date from the fifteenth to late eighteenth centuries and come from…
The male Franciscans settled in Sassoferrato in the thirteenth century, and so did their female counterparts the Poor Clares. In 1253, just a stone’s throw away from the church of San Francesco, they founded the nunnery that they still inhabit today, over 750 years later. For obvious reasons the nunnery…
Many Italians are on holiday in August. That became very clear to us when we visited the charming town of Sassoferrato. We could easily find a spot to park our car in the high part of town and then continued on foot through the historical centre without encountering many other…
We parked our car in the Viale della Repubblica and continued on foot to the historical centre of Fossombrone. During the Middle Ages the town was part of the Papal States. The Pope in Rome had appointed members of the Malatesta family from Rimini as rulers, but in 1445 Galeazzo…
Just outside the built-up area of Fossombrone lie the remains of the town to which Fossombrone owes its name: the Roman colony of Forum Sempronii.[1] The colony was founded along the Via Flaminia, the important road that connected Rome with the Adriatic coast. At Fanum Fortunae (Fano) it swung north,…
In the more distant past the monastery of Champmol was situated a bit outside Dijon, but nowadays the former monastic terrain is firmly within the city. Our trip to Champmol from the city centre proved to be anything but easy. On paper it looked so simple, but one way traffic,…
By far the most spectacular room in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Dijon is the Hall of the Guard (salle des Gardes). Here we find the funerary monuments of dukes Philip the Bold and John the Fearless, rulers of Burgundy and many other territories between 1363 and 1404, and…
As a child I was once handed a history book that had an image of the tomb of Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy. I still vividly remember how deeply impressed I was. Those colours! That realism! Was this really a work from the Middle Ages? My view on the…
I only knew the cathedral of Ancona from a beautiful fresco by Pinturicchio in the Libreria Piccolomini in Siena. The fresco shows us how Pope Pius II (1458-1464) arrives in the city to take charge of a crusade against the Turks. In the background, high on the Colle Guasco, the…
Santa Maria della Piazza is arguably the most interesting church of Ancona, with a history that goes back at least 1,500 years. The most conspicuous elements of the church are its façade with many blind arches and nice sculptures, and its crypt with floor mosaics from the predecessor of the…
It is without a doubt the most striking archaeological monument in Ancona: the slender marble triumphal arch that the Senate and people of Rome erected in the second century for the emperor Trajan (Trajanus; 98-117). The arch itself indicates why Trajan deserved the monument: because he had extended the port…
My travel guide described the archaeological museum of Ancona as “superb but under-visited”.[1] “Under-visited” turned out to be quite an understatement: for a long time we were the only visitors. Now it should be noted that the museum has a turbulent history and does not always give an impression of…
It was by chance that we passed by the church of San Francesco alle Scale. While we were on our way to the archaeological museum of the Marche we stumbled upon a piazza where we suddenly saw a large crowd descending a flight of stairs. The group had just visited…
In 1732 Pope Clemens XII (1730-1740) turned the port of Ancona into a free-trade zone and subsequently had it extended. Moreover, he had a road built that connected Ancona to Rome. All these activities were highly beneficial for the Anconitan economy, which is why the inhabitants of the city honoured…
Frederik II van Hohenstaufen (1194-1250) behoort tot de grootste vorsten die de Europese middeleeuwen hebben voorgebracht. Koning van Sicilië en keizer van het Heilige Roomse Rijk was hij, en daarnaast kruisvaarder en beschermheer van kunsten en wetenschappen, om nog maar een paar van zijn bezigheden te noemen. Zijn geboorteplaats Jesi…
De Piazza Federico II in Jesi is vernoemd naar de beroemdste man die in dit stadje in de Marche werd geboren: Frederik II van Hohenstaufen (1194-1250), koning van Sicilië en keizer van het Heilige Roomse Rijk. Aan het plein staat de kathedraal van het stadje, die duidelijk niet uit de…