Rocca Roveresca

The Rocca Roveresca is an essential stop on your visit to the city of Senigallia. The fortress can be defined as an extraordinary history book: in fact, it is the result of the overlapping of defensive structures that have occurred over the centuries, since the city’s origins, on a site of decisive strategic importance.

Over time, towers and bastions have been added to the defensive structure present since the Roman foundation of the city: evidence of the fourteenth-century Rocchetta commissioned by Egidio Albornoz is still visible, against which the Rocca di Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta was built in 1450 (1450).

The current structure of the monument is due to Giovanni della Rovere, lord of Senigallia, and son-in-law of Federico III da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. It was Duke Federico who made the best architects of the time available to Giovanni: Luciano Laurana and Baccio Pontelli. The intervention began in 1478 with the aim of adapting the fortress to the new defensive needs. In 1503 the fortress was conquered by Cesare Borgia who carried out the famous massacre described by Niccolò Machiavelli in Senigallia.

Rocca Roveresca is unique because it was not only a fortress, but also a stately home, home to an artillery school founded by Guidubaldo della Rovere in 1533. After the ducal dynasty died out, after the city returned to Church rule in 1631, it served as a papal prison and orphanage.

Today it hosts art exhibitions and prestigious cultural events.

Program of archaeology conferences related to the exhibition “The Shape of Gold”:

JULY 3, 5:30 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Diego Voltolini (director of the National Archaeological Museum of the Marche), With gold on his head: tiaras and crowns, the symbol of prestige

JULY 17, 5:30 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Gaia Pignocchi (archaeologist), Ornaments in Prehistory. A language without words

JULY 24, 5:30 p.m. Speaker: Prof. Giuseppe Lepore (Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Bologna), Asiatica luxuria. Luxury and Politics in Rome during the Republican Age

JULY 31, 5:30 PM, speaker: Professor Alessandra Coen (Associate Professor of Pre-Roman Italian Civilization and Etruscology, University of Urbino) The pomp of the Senoni ladies: local tradition and external contributions

Reservation required to the number 071 63258 or via mail to roccaroveresca.senigallia@cultura.gov.it