UNESCO towns and cities in the Marche

Urbino is situated between the valleys of the Metauro and Foglia rivers. Its historic centre now boasts the honour of being included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. It is  birthplace of two great artists, Bramante and Raphael, and it is home to one of the oldest and most important universities in Europe, founded in 1506. For the second half of the 15th century its windy hill was the setting for one of the most illustrious courts in Europe. Duke Federico da Montefeltro gathered around him the greatest painters, poets and scholars of his day and housed them in one of Italy's most beautiful Renaissance palaces, a palace that still stands as an eloquent memorial to this quintessential Renaissance man.
The Palazzo Ducale is a splendid late XV century residence, one of Italy's most beautiful Renaissance palaces, defined as "a city in the form of a palace", by humanist Baldesar. It was built by Luciano Laurana (1464-1472), who designed and carried out the main part of the building, like the Torricini façade, the Cortile D'Onore and the monumental series of steps. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, who built the most important fortresses in the Montefeltro area, finished the works started by Laurana. None of the rooms of the palace were designed to oppress with grandeur but were built on a human scale and decorated with glad-hearted sobriety. Nowadays they house the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche - a remarkable collection of paintings including one of the world's greatest and most enigmatic images, Piero della Francesca's Flagellation of Christ. Other great pictures here are Piero's Madonna di Senigallia , Raphael's La Muta, the Silent One, an anonymous portrait of a gentlewoman who we feel might talk to us if she only wished to, and a famous vision of the Ideal City by an unknown hand and much used by art designers to illustrate books on the Renaissance. The Duke's Studiolo is the most unusual room in the palace. His tiny study is entirely decorated in exquisite trompe l'oeil inlaid woodwork panels, some based on designs by Botticelli.
Urbino is the birthplace of Raphael, one of the most remarkable Renaissance artists. The house where he was born is now a delightful little museum. Further tourist attractions are: Oratorio S. Giovanni Battista entirely decorated in 1416 with wall-to-ceiling frescoes by the Marchegiani painters Jacopo and Lorenzo Salimbeni; Presepio or nativity scene of the Oratory of San Giuseppe by Federico Brandani; the elegant Cathedral with the nearby Albani Diocesan Museum; the Sanzio Theatre, built in the 19th century;  the rarely visited but nevertheless delightful Orto Botanico. You can't miss: the Collegio Raffaello, founded  by Pope Clement XI in the early eighteenth century, housing the town council hall, some offices of the Prefecture and the Cabinet Museum of Physics; the Albornoz Fortress, built in the second half of the fourteenth century by Cardinal Egidio Alvares de Albornoz. As you leave Urbino you can’t miss the tombs of Duke Federico and his son, Guidobaldo, in the fine church of San Bernardino. It was built in 1491 by Francesco di Giorgio Martini and stands on the hill above the junction for the Pesaro road.
The famous local specialty is "Casciotta of Urbino", one of the region's handful of officially protected DOP regional food; is a delicate pale cheese made from both ewe and cow's milk  across Pesaro and Urbino province. Crescia of Urbino is another popular specialty; it is a sort of focaccia (italian bread), filled with wiith sausage, wild herbs, ham or cheese. The most remarkable events  taking place in Urbino during the year are: Festival of Ancient Music (July), the Festival of the Duke (August) and the Kite Festival (September).

Fabriano is famous worldwide for the production of paper and watermark; this invention was introduced by papermakers from Fabriano in the second half of the thirteenth century.
The town is one of the UNESCO's Creative Cities; in 2013 it was included in the category Crafts and folk arts, beacuse of the production of handmade paper.
So proud is the town of its traditional industry that it has dedicated an interesting modern museum to it - you'll find the Museo della Carta (Paper and watermark museum) in the former monastery of San Domenico. The Paper and Watermark Museum traces the town's fascinating history of this important craft, with centuries-old machinery and well-preserved manuscripts illustrating its prominence over the ages. The most remarkable churches are: the Cathedral of San Venanzio, built in 1600 boasting frescoes by Allegretto Nuzi in 1360; the church of San Domenico; the Church of San Filippo , the church of St Biagio and the church St Romualdo, whose crypt houses the marble sarcophagus with the relics of St. Romuald, founder of the Camaldolese order; the late-thirteenth-century Church of St. Agostino, full of valuable frescoes; the church of St. Nicola, the church of St. Benedetto, housing works by Simone de Magistris, Orazio Gentileschi and Pasqualino Rossi. You can't miss: the Oratory of the Banner, with a ceiling carved and decorated in pure gold at the beginning of the seventeenth century by French sculptor Leonardo Scaglia ; the Oratory of the Charity, frescoed by Mannerist painter Filippo Bellini from Urbino. In the locality of Poggio San Romualdo is the abbey of San Salvatore in Val di Castro, dating back to the year 1000; in nearby Campodonico is the hermitage of San Biagio in Caprile. In the central and picturesque Piazza del Comune stands the Palazzo del Podestà, a typical example of medieval architecture, built in the middle of the thirteenth century, with swallow-tail battlements; further tourist attactions are: the Fountain of Sturinalto, a smaller version of Perugia's famous fountain, built at the close of the 13thC, the Town hall, the Loggiato San Francesco, the former hospital of Santa Maria del Buon Gesù, a fine example of late Gothic architecture housing the art gallery Bruno Molajoli and boasting precious paintings on wood and frescoes by Allegretto Nuzi, Maestro di Staffolo, Antonio da Fabriano, Ottaviano Nelli, Orazio Gentileschi and Andrea Boscoli; the nineteenth-century Teatro Gentile, with a precious curtain by Luigi Serra. The theatre is dedicated to Gentile da Fabriano, Italy's greatest master of the late International Gothic style of painting, born in Fabriano in 1375. 

The typical product of Fabriano is the "salame of Fabriano", that is a sort of salami with pieces of lard. The top quality white wine made in the area is Verdicchio di Matelica DOC wine.
The most important event taking place in Fabriano is the Palio di San Giovanni Battista (June). During this event there are games and historical parades. In late May Fabriano hosts Poiesis , a festival including poetry, art, music and  theatre.

The Cathedral of St. Venancio is one of the most important and prestigious churches of the Marche, both for its fine architectural structures and for its works of art.

It was first built in the Upper Medieval times. In 1253 the bishop from Camerino moved the baptismal font from Attigium to the church of St. Venancio, which therefore became more important in the surrounding area.  

The church was widened during the 13^th century and it got Gothic style shapes that still survive in the polygonal-shaped apse, in the cloister and in the chapel of St. Lawrence, where important frescos by the 14^th century painter Allegretto Nuzi are preserved:  the life of Saint Lawrence and the fresco representing the Madonna with Child and Saint Venance.

In the Chapel of the Holy Cross you can admire a Crucifixion by Allegretto Nuzi, as well as some frescoes by Giovanni di Corraduccio from Foligno and works by the Master of San Verecondo.

The church was rebuilt during the 17^th century by the architect Muzio Oddi and it was adorned by the stuccoes by Francesco Selva. In 1728 it became a cathedral, as Fabriano became the seat of a diocese, and finally, in 1963, it became a basilica.

In the cathedral there are extraordinary works of art in Baroque and Mannerist style, such as the canvases by Gregorio Preti, Giuseppe Puglie, Salvatore Rosa, Giovan Francesco Guerrieri.  Particularly valuable are the Passion and Crucifixion scenes, painted  around 1620 by the well known painter Orazio Gentileschi, one of Caravaggio's followers.

Even back in the 14th century, Fabriano's paper mills were producing a million sheets of paper a year and it was here that watermarked paper was developed. Its paper is still used the world over for bank notes and quality art paper.
So proud is the town of its traditional industry that it has dedicated an interesting modern museum to it - you'll find the Museo della Carta in the former monastery of San Domenico to the south of the town on Largo Fratelli Spacca. The Paper and Watermark Museum traces the town's fascinating history of this important craft, with centuries-old machinery and well-preserved manuscripts illustrating its prominence over the ages. Watermarks dated back to 15th and 16th century.