Ancona

The name (from the Greek word ankos, or elbow) describes the deep port inlet which is the only natural inlet of its kind on the coast between Venice and Bari.

From the port, which was the heart of the city’s economy as far back as Greek times, the city of Ancona spreads upwards over the Guasco hill on which the extraordinary Romanesque Cathedral of St. Ciriaco built in pink and white Conero stone today stands.

The centres of ancient political and trading powers (like the Elders Palazzo and the magnificent Merchants Loggia) line the long and narrow steep streets that open onto wide squares where there almost always a church. Picturesque churches like the Church of Jesus (1665) in piazza Stracca, with its beautiful curved facade by Vanvitelli (1743) or superb churches like the Church of St. Francesco alle Scale in Piazza San Francesco, which has an imposing stairway and a magnificent Gothic Venetian portal (and houses a splendid painting of the Assumption by Lorenzo Lotto) and rich churches like the eighteenth century Church of St. Domenico which houses a Crucifix by Tiziano and a painting of the Annunciation by Guercino.

This church is in the delightful Piazza del Plebiscito, also known as the “Piazza of the Pope" because of the statute of Pope Clement XII at the centre of the square.

www.comune.ancona.it