Terre del Duca

Visiting the Rocca Roveresca Fortress of Senigallia is like leafing through the pages of a history book that reveals the story of this seaside land that was once a bulwark. The work of construction of the city's fortifications was committed by Giovanni Della Rovere to the great architects Federico da Montefeltro Luciano Laurana and Baccio Pontelli. The second built the residential part and the access drawbridge; Pontelli, took care of the works closely related to defense, constituted by the quadrangular structure with massive corner towers, in addition to the finishing work of the ducal residence: the decorative elements of the windows, the moldings in the yard and indoors; the spiral staircase of the north tower. The present architectural complex is the result of reform and expansion interventions made through the course of the centuries since the first defensive tower dating back to Roman times, on which the medieval coastal tower of the 12th-13th centuries, the first fortress wanted by Cardinal Albornoz in the mid-14th century, together with  the Malatesta fortress (mid-15th century) and the Della Rovere fortress (end of the same century) were built.

The piazza is delimited on its four sides by the Post Office and three palazzi: Ducale, Baviera and Comunale (Municipal). The fountain at the centre is a faithful 1960 reconstruction of the  17th. century fountain destroyed in 1944. 

The piazza was originally the forum of the Ancient Roman city situated at the crossing of the cardo (via San Francesco and corso XI Settembre), the urban section of the Consular via Flaminia, with the decumannus (via Branca and via Rossini). The foundation layout of Pisaurum (184 B.C.) consisted of orthogonal axes corresponding to the two main streets meeting in the piazza. The piazza has been the political and administrative centre of the city since the Middle Ages.
 
Around 1450, when Alessandro Sforza built the avant-corps of Palazzo Ducale, the piazza was halved in size. In the mid sixteenth century, at the time of Guidobaldo II della Rovere’s great restructuring of Palazzo Ducale, the piazza was increased to its present sdimension. The plan was by the architect Filippo Terzi, who interpreted Guidobaldo II’s project for the improvement of the city. On the marriage of Federico Ubaldo Della Rovere to Claudia de' Medici in 1621, Palazzo Ducale was enlarged and, under the guidance of Terzi’s successor, Niccolò Sabbatini, the piazza finally assumed its definitive form.

The piazza was paved for the occasion with bricks separated by marble strips converging on the fountain; these were replaced in 1733 by strips of white Rovigno stone. The piazza’s present stone paving subdivided by strips of white stone is based on its eighteenth century aspect.