Monuments and History

Following a war period, Dante Alighieri cited Senigallia in the sixteenth canto of the Paradiso among the “cities that have an end”. However, despite being neglected for a long time, it revived in the second half of the 15th century thanks to Sigismondo Malatesta and then Giovanni della Rovere.

In those years of reconstruction, restoration work was carried out on the city walls and on the Rocca Roveresca, now home to art exhibitions and cultural events. Nearby is the Piazza del Duca delimited by the Palazzo Ducale and the Palazzetto Baviera, which both have extraordinarily decorated interiors, and the Fountain of Lions at the center of the large Piazza del Duca.

A few meters away we find a different, neoclassical scenario, properly represented by the imposing Foro Annonario, a recently restored hemicycle with a portico of 24 Doric columns, which today houses the characteristic daily “herb and fish market” and other colorful food shops. Next to the forum is the historic Palazzina dei Macelli, which can be reached by a narrow and short street that is named after it.
 

Connected to Piazza del Duca by the narrow Via dei Commercianti is Piazza Simoncelli, the ancient Jewish ghetto setting for another episode in the history of Senigallia. Walking along Corso II Giugno, dotted with shops and cafés, we reach Piazza Roma, embellished by the Neptune Fountain and the seventeenth-century Palazzo del Governo, now the seat of the town hall.

Right behind the Town Hall is the Palazzo Mastai Ferretti, which houses precious relics of Pope Pius IX, a native of Senigallia.

Parallel to the right bank of the Misa riverside, you can walk through the Portici Ercolani, a suggestive sequence of one hundred and twenty-six Istrian-stone arches marked by an austere style reminiscent of the Etruscan era. The porticos remind us of the Fiera Franca, which enlivened the commercial life of the city, making it a free port and ensuring rich traffic from the Mediterranean, Eastern and Northern Europe for 500 years, from the 14th century to the mid-19th century.
Today, the memory of trade in goods is celebrated every year at the end of August with a highly anticipated event named Fiera di S. Agostino.

Going up Corso II Giugno, the modern architectural structure of the La Fenice Theater stands out, whose restoration gave rise to the discovery of important Roman finds preserved in the appropriate Archaeological Area.

On the opposite side, crossing the bridge over the river, the tree-lined Via Carducci, delimited by the monumental Porta Lambertina built in honor of Benedict XIV is flourishing again as a pleasant continuation of the main street promenade.