Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici delle Marche
Publicaccess
Yes
The Archaeological Park of Urbs Salvia is situated in the comune of Urbisaglia (Province of Macerata), in the Marches, Italy. It is the largest archaeological park in the region.
Urbs Salvia was sacked by the Visigoths in 408–10 AD, and suffered destruction over the years from earthquakes and plundering.
The decadence of the town is described by the poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) in his Divine Comedy (Paradiso, XVI, 73-78):
If Luni thou regard, and Urbisaglia, How they have passed away, and how are passing Chiusi and Senigallia after them,
To hear how races waste themselves away Will seem to thee no novel thing nor hard Seeing that even cities have an end.
Archaeological Park
The Archaeological Park of Urbs Salvia is exceptional for the ease with which the overall building plan can be deciphered. The itinerary starts at the Archaeological Museum which houses, among other things, epigraphs, statues and portraits that were excavated in Urbisaglia from the middle of the 18th century onwards.
Reservoir
Reservoir, Urbs Salvia
Just outside the medieval city walls, on the highest point of the site, you can find the large reservoir collecting and cleaning the water coming from the Roman Aqueduct of Urbs Salvia. It was formed by an underground vaulted conduit with lateral walls made of bricks (opus latericium). The ancient aqueduct ran under the top of this hill and was about 1.5km long. It had a gentle and constant slope so that it could carry water from a spring situated at the opposite side of the present-day Urbisaglia into this structure. The cisterns consist of two barrel vaulted tunnels connected at both ends, with internal walls covered by hydraulic mortar. The whole structure was built in opus caementicium (Roman concrete). Each tunnel was about 51 m long, 2.90 m wide and 4.10 m high and had a capacity of about 1,000 cubic metres of water. The reservoir provided the whole town with spring water and it was situated in the highest area inside Urbs Salvia so that it could be powered only by gravity. In the reservoir are still visible:
the water outlet: the opening through which water was distributed to the town. The pipes (fistulae) were made of lead;
the ventilation shafts (lumina): a series of openings in the vault for air exchange, check of level and quality of water and periodical maintenance (manual cleaning of the internal walls);
the water inlet: whence water flowed inside. It is formed by one of the ends of the aqueduct and shows a very thick layer of water deposit (calcium carbonate);
traces of the planks utilized to build the vaults are still visible at some parts.
From the theatre to the amphitheatre
Roman theatre of Urbs Salvia
The imposing Roman theatre was built in 23 AD on the Hellenic model. The structure presents a cavea (auditorium) divided into three tiers of seats with entrances on the different levels. Around the cavea is a corridor with steps running to the top, where there was a sacellum (small temple). Of the original stage the lower part of the walling is preserved; behind the stage is an artificial terrace which was framed by a colonnade supported by solid brick wall.
At the foot of the hill, conveniently placed alongside the via Salaria Gallica (i.e., the main line of communication in the Picenum, here matching up with the cardo maximus of the town), was the sanctuary-complex. The main temple had a six-column facade. What remains of the original structure is part of the podium lacking the white limestone slabs with which it was originally paved. It was dedicated to the Salus Augusta (protector goddess of the Emperor), and was probably used for the imperial cult promoted by Tiberius, successor of Augustus. The temple is enclosed by a porticus made up of four underground galleries with frescoes in the 3rd Pompeiian style. The frescoes represent haunting animals, masks, and pictures connected with Augustus' political propaganda (trophies). Next to the main temple there is a smaller one. Behind it there is an area which was probably devoted to the ritual use of water, and behind the main temple there is a via munita, corresponding to the first East cardo.
Roman amphiteatre of Urbs Salvia
Just outside the city walls, there are two funeral monuments and the amphitheatre, one of the best preserved examples of this type in the Marche region. The amphitheatre was built after the year 81 AD by the Urbisalvian Titus' military general Lucius Flavius Silva Nonius Bassus, who captured the Masada fortress in Palestine. The amphitheatre was used for gladiatorial contests and other entertainments. All its perimeter is preserved up to the first seating level, including the first level of the vomitoria (the exit-ways) and the bases of the pillars of the external corridor. In its original form it probably had three tiers of seats. The external wall of the cavea (auditorium) had a series of semicircular niches which later formed the supports of the stairs to the entrances on the upper floors. The arena is 59m long and 35m wide. The two entrances at the major axis of the elliptical amphitheatre were for the gladiators.
Bacchielli L. - Ch. Delplace - W. Eck - L. Gasperini - G. Paci. Studi su Urbisaglia romana. Supplementi a PICUS. Tivoli, 1995.
Bertini, Adelaide - Giuseppe Ferranti - Miria Salvucci (et al. ). Abati e feudatari nella Valle del Fiastra. Urbisaglia, 1996.
Capodaglio, Giuseppina. Statue e ritratti di età romana da Urbs Salvia. Pollenza, 1994.
Capodaglio, Giuseppina - Fabrizio Cipolletta. I teatri romani nelle Marche. Macerata, 1999.
Fabrini, Giovanna Maria. Il nuovo volto di Urbs Salvia: dalle origini alla prima età imperiale. In G. de Marinis - G. Paci - E. Percossi - M. Silvestrini. Archeologia nel Maceratese. Nuove Acquisizioni. 2005.
Ferranti, Giuseppe. Guida al territorio di Urbisaglia. Pro Manoscritto a cura di Urbsalviambiente. Urbisaglia, 1994.
Luni Mario ( a cura di). Archeologia nelle Marche. Dalla preistoria all'Età tardoantica. Firenze, 2003.
Salvucci Benedetto ( a cura di). Urbs Salvia. Periodico, I-III. Urbisaglia, 1970-1972.
Salvucci Miria - Salvucci Giovanna (et al. ). Urbisaglia. Urbs Salvia, Capolavori in corso. Urbisaglia, 2003.
Lutetia, also known as Lutetia Parisiorum, was a Gallo–Roman town and the predecessor of modern-day Paris. Traces of an earlier Neolithic settlement have been found nearby, and a larger settlement was established around the middle of the third century BC by the Parisii, a Gallic tribe. The site was an important crossing point of the Seine, the intersection of land and water trade routes.
Falerone is a town and comune in the province of Fermo, in the Italian region of the Marche, southeast of Urbisaglia.
Sentinum was a Roman town now located about a kilometre south of the present-day town of Sassoferrato in the Marche region of Italy.
Regio VI Umbria is the name for one of the 11 administrative regions into which the emperor Augustus divided Italy. The main source for the regions is the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder, who informs his readers he is basing the geography of Italy on the descriptio Italiae, "division of Italy," made by Augustus. The Regio Sexta is called Umbria complexa agrumque Gallicam citra Ariminium, "Umbria including the Gallic country this side of Rimini."
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 and the northern part of Abruzzo.
Urbisaglia is a comune in Marche, Italy.
Fermo[ˈfermo]listen (help·info) is a town and comune of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo.
Ricina or Helvia Recina was a Roman town located in the lower Potenza valley, the contemporary Italian region Marche.
Augusta Emerita, also called Emerita Augusta, was a Roman colonia founded in 25 BC in present day Mérida, Spain. The city was founded by Roman Emperor Augustus to resettle Emeriti soldiers from the veteran legions of the Cantabrian Wars, these being Legio V Alaudae, Legio X Gemina, and possibly Legio XX Valeria Victrix. The city was the capital of the Roman province of Lusitania, and was one of the largest in Hispania with an area of over 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi). It had three aqueducts and two fora.
Lucius Flavius Silva Nonius Bassus was a late-1st-century Roman general, governor of the province of Iudaea and consul. Silva was the commander of the army, composed mainly of the Legio X Fretensis, in 72 AD which laid siege to the near-impregnable mountain fortress of Masada, occupied by a group of Jewish rebels called the Sicarii. The siege ended in 73 AD with Silva's forces breaching the defenses of the Masada plateau and the mass suicide of the Sicarii, who preferred death to defeat or capture. Silva's actions are documented by 1st-century Jewish-Roman historian Josephus, the remains of a 1st-century Roman victory arch identified in Jerusalem in 2005, and the extensive earthworks at the Masada site, a monument to the high-water mark of Roman siege warfare.
Chiaravalle Abbey, Fiastra, is a Cistercian abbey situated between Tolentino and Urbisaglia, in the Marche. It is one of the best preserved Cistercian abbeys in Italy. It is surrounded by a large nature reserve.
The Palatine Gate is a Roman Age city gate located in Turin, Italy. The gate provided access through the city walls of Julia Augusta Taurinorum from the North side and, as a result, it constituted the Porta Principalis Dextra of the old town.
Suasa was an ancient Roman town in what is now the comune of Castelleone di Suasa, Marche, Italy. It is located in the Pian Volpello locality, in the valley of the Cesano River.
The Ager Gallicus was the territory in northern Picenum that had been occupied by the Senone Gauls and was conquered by Rome in 284 BC or 283 BC, either after the Battle of Arretium or the Battle of Lake Vadimon.
Rhodiapolis, also known as Rhodia (Ῥοδία) and Rhodiopolis (Ῥοδιόπολις), was a city in ancient Lycia. Today it is located on a hill northwest of the modern town Kumluca in Antalya Province, Turkey.
Septempeda was a Roman town in Picenum, now in the Italian region Marche. It became today's San Severino Marche after the fall of the Roman Empire.
The Rocca di Urbisaglia is a 16th-century military fortification, including ruins of medieval fortifications and Roman walls. Its imposing position, dominating the urban area and the Fiastra Valley below, suggests that the Arx or the Capitol of the Roman town Urbs Salvia was once located here.
The Greek theatre of Syracuse lies on the south slopes of the Temenite hill, overlooking the modern city of Syracuse in southeastern Sicily, Italy. It was first built in the 5th century BC, rebuilt in the 3rd century BC and renovated again in the Roman period. Today, it is a part of the Unesco World Heritage Site of "Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica".
Despite its abandoned state, it remains one of the most beautiful locations in the world, offering the most grandiose and picturesque spectacle that there is.
The Roman amphitheatre of Syracuse is one of the best preserved structures in the city of Syracuse, Sicily, from the early Imperial period.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
