Osimo

It is at an altitude of 265 m on a large sub-Apennine hill, among the Aspio and Musone valleys. An agricultural and livestock centre (cattle, poultry and pigs), there are also industries in mechanics and electro-mechanics including musical instruments (accordions), building materials, packaging, etc. The old centre has the thirteenth century walls, with remains of the mighty Roman walls embedded in them. The principal church of San Leopardo is Romanesque-Gothic, rebuilt and restored, with a sixteenth-century facade (inside, ambo marble from the thirteenth century, twelfth century crypt columns and interesting pagan and early Christian bas-reliefs). Also interesting is the twelfth century baptistery of St. Giovanni (Beautiful bronze baptismal font of Father Paul and T. Iacometti, 1627; Wooden ceiling decorated by A. Sarti), the Gothic church of St. Joseph of Copertino, with the saint’s tomb (a rich table by Antonio Solarium, 1503), and the church of San Marco, with frescoes from the fourteenth century and a painting by Guercino (1643). In the Town Hall (with seventeenth-century facade), are statues, boundary stones and Roman inscriptions. The civic tower was built in the thirteenth century. At the time of Pompey the Great a large concrete exedra was erected called Fonte Magna.