Every design for Macerata

Macerata keeps watch over two rivers from its hilltop, monte Albano, with the valley of the Potenza to the north and that of the Chienti to the south, the Adriatic a short way to the east and the ridge of the Apennines further inland.

That high position is the reason the city exists. When the Goths destroyed the Roman town of Helvia Recina down in the valley, its people climbed into the hills and built Macerata and Recanati, and the remains of the Roman theatre still mark where they came from. Up here the city grew inside its walls, gained a bishop and became one of the strongholds of the Papal States, while its university, founded in 1290, made it one of the oldest seats of learning in Europe. For the people who live here, the old centre is the shared front room of the city, full of students in term time and of opera lovers in summer, when the neoclassical Sferisterio, a huge open-air arena, fills for the festival.

Porta Mercato, Porta San Giuliano and the Museo Palazzo Ricci mark the corners of a small, close world; carrying its map is a way of carrying the Sferisterio on a summer night.