Fano

It is situated at 14m on the Adriatic coast between the Arzilla estuary (to the north) and the Metauro estuary (to the south east). Seaside resort and fishing harbour, Fano is also an agricultural-commercial centre (specific crops are: vegetables, olive oil, wine and fruit) and an industrial food centre (canneries), with metal, mechanical, shoe, clothes, furniture, building and sea industries. It is an important railway and road junction and has a tourist airport.

A local festival is the annual Adriatic carnival with its allegorical float parade. It is the birthplace of Clement VIII. All around the historical centre, which was built on a Roman plan, the town walls widen. Around the town walls, enlarged by Malatesta, there are residential and industrial areas and along the coast there are beaches and lidos.

There are the remains of the Augustan walls, the August Arch (2 A.D.) on which there are the St. Michael’s loggias, the Malatesta palace with its court (the nice loggia of Sansovino), the civic museum (art gallery; the Numismatic collection), Luca Sangallo and Nuti’s bastions, the Malatesta Fortress (1438-1452) that these days is used as the prison, the Romanesque-Gothic “Palazzo della Ragione”(1299), the “Teatro della Fortuna”(rebuilt during the XIX century) and the Romanesque cathedral (rebuilt several times during the XII century). Also important are St. Paterniano’s Basilica (1547) with the church tower by Jacopo Sansovino, the Romanesque-Gothic San Domenico church of the XIV century (which was rebuilt and contains an important work of St. Thomas D’Aquino di Palma the young), the two churches of St. August (XIII-XIV centuries, several times restored) and that of St. Maria Nuova (XVI century restored) in which there are some paintings by Perugino and G. Santi. Some beautiful mansions are: Castracane (with Renaissance frescos), Martinozzi, assigned to Sansovino (1564) and Montevecchio (XVIII century). Only part of the façade remains of the semi-destroyed church of St. Francis which has, under the front portico, the Malatesta arches and tomb monuments of the XV century. Really sumptuous is the Federician town library. This area also includes the Camaldolese hermitage of Monte Giove (223m) and a small spa in Fonti di Carignano (salt bromine-ionic waters).