Sassoferrato

The small town of Sassoferrato is located 9 km from Genga and is laid out on two levels: the lower Borgo district at 310 m above sea level and the upper Castello district at 400 m above sea level. The upper district is dominated by the remains of the Rocca, the massive military building from the 14th century built by order of Cardinal Albornoz in 1365.

The ancient Roman city of Sentinum was located near today’s Sassoferrato. It is was here that in 295 BC, the Romans delivered a decisive defeat over the Gauls and the Samnites during the Third Samnite War. Today the archaeological area where the ancient town stood offers a number of noteworthy remains and finds, including the cardo and the decumanus roads, the remains of a bath temple and the four-sided-portico of a large building outside the town walls.

The Civic Archaeological Museum inside Palazzo dei Priori features impressive mosaic floors. The finds on display illustrate different aspects of everyday life and society in the ancient Roman city of Sentinum. The Sala Perottiana on the ground floor of Palazzo dei Priori holds a fine collection of Byzantine and Flemish relics, including a 14th-century Icon with Saint Demetrios. 

Recommended: Cabernardi Sulphur Mine Museum, illustrating the history of what for many years was Europe’s most important mining centre; Museum of Art and Popular Traditions in a former convent, with a reconstruction of a typical farmhouse; the “Incisori Marchigiani” Collection, which includes over four hundred graphic works, including seventeen drawings, by two hundred artists from the Marche region.