Osimo is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' of the

Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, in the

province of Ancona The province of Ancona () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Marche region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Ancona, and the province borders the Adriatic Sea. The city of Ancona is also the capital of Marche. To the north, the province ...

. The municipality covers a hilly area located approximately south of the port city of

Ancona Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...

and the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

History

The oldest archaeological evidence attested in the territory of Osimo comes from the lower valley of the

Musone The Musone () is a river in the Marche region of Italy. The source of the river is east of Matelica and south of Monte San Vicino in the province of Macerata. The river flows northeast near Apiro, Cingoli and Staffolo before crossing into the ...

river and its right tributary

Fiumicello Fiumicello (, ) is a ''frazione'' of Fiumicello Villa Vicentina in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about southeast of Udine. Fiumicello borders the following municipalit ...

, which date back to the

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...

(40,000-12,000 years ago). In the 9th century BC, the

Picentes The Picentes or Piceni or Picentini were an ancient Italic peoples, Italic people who lived from the 9th to the 3rd century BC in the area between the Foglia and Aterno rivers, bordered to the west by the Apennines and to the east by the Adriatic ...

settled on the hill of Osimo and on the peak of Monte San Pietro, giving life to two distinct settlements with relative

necropolises A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

. With the

Battle of Sentinum The Battle of Sentinum was the decisive battle of the Third Samnite War, fought in 295 BC near Sentinum (next to the modern town of Sassoferrato, in the Marches region of Italy), in which the Romans overcame a formidable coalition of Samni ...

(today

Sassoferrato Sassoferrato is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Ancona in the Marche region of central-eastern Italy. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). History Between Sassoferrato and Arcevia was t ...

) in 295 BC, the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

began the conquest of

Picenum Picenum was a region of ancient Italy. The name was assigned by the Romans, who conquered and incorporated it into the Roman Republic. Picenum became ''Regio V'' in the Augustan territorial organisation of Roman Italy. It is now in Marche ...

region, which involved Osimo starting from 173 BC. Vetus Auximum – the ancient Osimo – was founded by the ancient Romans, who used it as a fortress for their settlement in northern

. The walls were made of large rectangular stones which are still visible in some locations. It became a Roman colony in 157 BC. The family of

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

were its protectors and resisted

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

in 49 BCE. Inscriptions and monuments in its town square attest to the importance of Osimo during imperial times. In the 6th century it was besieged twice in the course of the

Gothic War (535–554) The Gothic War between the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Roman emperor, Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy took place from 535 to 554 in the Italian peninsula, Dalmatia (theme), Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily, and Cors ...

Belisarius BelisariusSometimes called Flavia gens#Later use, Flavius Belisarius. The name became a courtesy title by the late 4th century, see (; ; The exact date of his birth is unknown. March 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under ...

and

Totila Totila, original name Baduila (died 1 July 552), was the penultimate King of the Ostrogoths, reigning from 541 to 552 AD. A skilled military and political leader, Totila reversed the tide of the Gothic War (535–554), Gothic War, recovering b ...

; the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

historian

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

said it was the leading town of Picenum. Osimo was a free commune by 1100 A.D. It was later returned to the Pope by Cardinal Gil de Albornoz. In 1399–1430, it was a fief of the Malatesta family, who built a ''rocca'', or "castle", which is no longer intact. Osimo was again made a part of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

, and remained so until

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

in 1861.

Main sights

Osimo retains a portion of its ancient town wall (2nd century BCE). Under the town is a large series of tunnels with esoteric bas-reliefs. The town hall contains a number of statues found on the site of the ancient forum. The new castle (1489), of which parts remain today, was built by

Baccio Pontelli Baccio Pontelli (c. 1449 – c. 1494) was an Italian architect and worker in wood inlays, who designed the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. Baccio is an abbreviation of Bartolomeo. Pontelli was born in Florence; in 1459 his father declared he was ...

. Among the churches in the town are the following:Comune of Osimo
Accessed 29 November 2022. *

Osimo Cathedral Osimo Cathedral or the Church of San Leopardo (, ''Chiesa di San Leopardo'') is the principal church of Osimo in Italy, dedicated to the first bishop, Saint Leopardus. Formerly the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Osimo, it has been since 1986 a ...

: (8th–12th centuries) The restored Romanesque-Gothic church has a portal with sculptures of the 13th century, an old crypt, a fine bronze font of the 16th century and a series of portraits of all the bishops of the old

diocese of Osimo The Roman Catholic Diocese of Osimo was an ancient diocese in Italy. It was founded in the seventh century and in 1725 merged with the Diocese of Cingoli to form the Diocese of Osimo e Cingoli.Basilica of San Giuseppe da Copertino: was founded as a church dedicated to St Francis, but with the canonization in 1753 of

Joseph of Cupertino Joseph of Cupertino (Copertino), OFM Conv. (; 17 June 1603 – 18 September 1663) was an Italian Conventual Franciscan friar who is honored as a Christian mystic and saint. According to traditional Franciscan accounts, he was "remarkably uncle ...

, the church was rededicated and refurbished to house his relics. * San Marco Evangelista: Erected in 14th century by

Augustinian order Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written about 400 A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13th ...

; refurbished in later centuries, contains an altarpiece by

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as (il) Guercino (), was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous n ...

. * San Niccolò: 16th-century church * Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine Addolorata: 20th century Neo-Romanesque church outside of the town center

People

* Francesco Antonozzi (1685–1741), painter * Andrea Cionna (born 1968), holder of the world record for the fastest marathon run by a blind man * Bonfilius (1040–1115), monk, bishop and

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

Luigi Fagioli Luigi Cristiano Fagioli (; 9 June 1898 – 20 June 1952) was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Grand Prix motor racing from 1928 to 1949, and Formula One from to . Nicknamed "the Abruzzi Robber", Fagioli won the 1951 French Grand Prix w ...

(1898–1952), motor racing driver *

Bruno Giacconi Bruno Giacconi (20 November 1889 – 25 February 1957) was an Italian sports shooter. He competed in the 25 m pistol event at the 1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officia ...

(1889–1957), Olympian *

Sylvester Gozzolini Silvestro Guzzolini (1177 – 26 November 1267) was an Italian Catholic Church, Catholic Priesthood in the Catholic Church, priest and the founder of the Sylvestrines, Silvestrini. He served as a Canon (priest), canon in Osimo but respectful re ...

, founder of the

Sylvestrines The Sylvestrines are a Religious congregation, congregation of monks of the Order of St Benedict who form the Sylvestrine Congregation. The Sylvestrines use the post-nominal initials O.S.B. Silv.. The congregation was founded in 1231 by Sylvester ...

and saint * Clemente da Osimo (1235–1291), Italian Roman Catholic professed religious

Twin towns

Copertino Copertino (; historical ; ), also known in English as Cupertino, is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Lecce in the Apulia region of south-east Italy. History Following Charles of Anjou's successful campaign in 1266, the Hohenstaufen tow ...

, Italy * Armstrong,

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Cities and towns in the Marche Roman towns and cities in Italy