Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194-1250) can be counted among the greatest monarchs spawned by the European Middle Ages. He was King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor, but also a crusader and a patron of arts and sciences, to name but a few of his other activities. His birthplace Jesi…
The Piazza Federico II in Jesi is named after the most famous man ever to have been born in this town in the Marche: Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194-1250), King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor. At the far end of the square stands the cathedral of the town, which…
We parked our car in the free parking garage called Parcheggio Mercantini and climbed the hill where the gorgeous church of San Marco is situated. The church and adjacent convent have been used by Carmelite nuns since the end of the nineteenth century. The nuns live in seclusion – they…
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,…
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…
The Bronzi Dorati are four gilded bronze statues which were presumably made between the 50s and 30s BCE. They comprise two Roman men on horseback and two Roman women on foot who all belong to the same aristocratic family. Since they can be counted among the most important archaeological finds…
During our last vacation in Italy we really wanted to do something “local”, to see things that other tourists would not see so easily, to talk to the Italians, to be pleasantly surprised. When we visited the charming town of Pergola, we were handed a sheet of paper that announced…
I cannot recall how exactly we learned of the existence of this small oratory along the main road through Pergola. The oratory was not mentioned in our travel guide, so we must have found it somewhere on the Internet. Our first attempt to get inside ended in failure: the door…
The former church of Santa Maria di Piazza is the oldest and certainly the most interesting of all the churches in the charming town of Pergola. The history of the church is said to go back at least a millennium. According to tradition it was founded in the first decade…