Cupra Marittima has a past of splendor and wealth.
Cupra Marittima has a past of splendor and wealth. https://posts.gle/AZMG2
offers the visitor the opportunity to admire numerous works of art and monuments among the most characteristic of the Marche. A few kilometers from the Adriatic, the city rises around a hill dominated by the Cathedral. The beauty of Fermo is characterized by a medieval urban layout with narrow and steep streets, with some large spaces, such as the Piazza del Popolo and the large esplanade of the Girfalco, at the top of the hill. Discover the city with patience, to appreciate its charm a certain slowness is preferable, you will be rewarded by the discovery of medieval alleys, Renaissance buildings and traces of Roman neighborhoods.
In the spacious Piazza del Popolo you can admire the Palazzo Comunale, the Palazzo degli Studi and the Apostolic one, as well as the elegant Loggiato di San Rocco. At the Civic Art Gallery you can admire a youthful canvas by Rubens, at the Municipal Library magnificent rooms and precious collections. Another unmissable destination for those who have decided to take a trip to Fermo is the Cathedral which welcomes the visitor with its high façade and the grandiose shapes of the interior. Equally surprising are the Roman Cisterns, a grandiose construction from the Augustan age, which served as the city's aqueduct.
Built in an area frequented since prehistoric times thanks to its position on the coast, Cupra Marittima has been a port and trading center since the 7th-6th century.
The city was very rich and known for the production and export of oil. Contacts with Magna Graecia were frequent, and there were also many overland relations with Lazio.
The native inhabitants, the Piceni, became part of the hegemony of Rome starting from the third century BC. and the city became a Roman municipality in the 1st century BC. Cupra Marittima remained a thriving and lively reality during the imperial age, until the fate of the city became unstable with the fall of the Empire.
First dominated by the Byzantines, then by the Lombards and the Franks, it was then destroyed by the Saracens in the 9th century.
The archaeological park
The archaeological park of Cupra Marittima is characterized by few visible but interesting structures, because they allow us to understand the richness and vitality of the territory.
It can be observed in the first place that the citadel was surrounded by a wall from the Augustan age, within which the remains of some sacred buildings can be seen.
The oldest temple in Cupra Marittima is the sanctuary of the goddess Cupra, an indigenous deity similar to Juno in the Roman pantheon, whose name is strongly associated with the city, and dates back to the Picene era, although the city continued to use this sacred place even in Roman times.
As often happens in Roman cities, there is a smaller reproduction of the Capitolium of Rome, of which the podium with a staircase is preserved. The brick structure of two decorative arches placed symmetrically on the sides of the temple, which measure about four meters, can be seen well preserved.
The forum is located in an elevated position, on the Civita Santi hill, and had porticoes with frescoed walls, of which only a few fragments remain, including a head of Medusa inscribed in a rhombus dating back to the 1st century BC. It is also possible to identify different areas dedicated to administrative and commercial activities and a judicial basilica.
Then there are the remains of some rooms that in the Republican era housed the oil presses, but which in the late Imperial age became part of a thermal building with a closed nymphaeum decorated with frescoes of marine scenes.
Along the coastal road that runs along the walls there was a necropolis. Some funeral monuments are visible, the remains of a villa and another nymphaeum whose relationship with the other buildings has not yet been able to be reconstructed.
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