Urbania

Urbania
Country	Italy
region	Brands
province	Pesaro and Urbino  (PU)
Coordinates	43 ° 40 ′  N , 12 ° 31 ′  E Coordinates: 43 ° 40 ′ 0 ″  N , 12 ° 31 ′ 0 ″  E
height	273  m slm
surface	77 km²
Residents	6,927 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density	90 inhabitants / km²
Post Code	61049
prefix	0722
ISTAT number	041066
Popular name	Urbaniesi, Durantini
Patron saint	Christophorus
Website	Urbania

Urbania is an Italian commune with 6927 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) in the Marche region . Until 1636 it was called Casteldurante . It was in honor of Pope Urban VIII. Renamed, under whose pontificate it in 1631 to the Papal States came and gave her a city charter.

location

The northern access to the city walls of Urbanias via the Metauro river

Urbania is located around 16 km southwest of the city of Urbino in the eastern Umbrian-Marcheggian Apennines , south of the historic Montefeltro region on the upper reaches of the Metauro river , the course of which is the Roman Via Flaminia Minor , an old Apennine crossing, today as the Italian state road 73 bis ( E 78 ) follows. The mountains in the south of the municipality rise to 791 m (Monte dei Torrini) , the center in the valley is 273 m above sea level.

history

Urbania has occasionally been identified with the location of the Roman Municipium Urbinum metaurense . The place has been known as Castel delle Ripe since the Middle Ages . It was a free Guelf community and as such was destroyed in 1277 by the Ghibelline Galasso da Montefeltro from Urbino. The surviving population fled to the nearby Benedictine monastery of San Cristoforo and began to build a new city in its vicinity around 1284, which the Provençale Guillaume Durand (Italian: Guglielmo Durante ) fortified as papal legate and governor of Romagna and the Mark Ancona , whereupon she took the name Casteldurante .

The town later came under the rule of the Brancaleoni for a period of two generations , whose last ruler Alberico Brancaleoni got rid of the population and offered himself to the Duchy of Urbino , to which Casteldurante has belonged ever since. Under the Della Rovere , who succeeded the Montefeltro ruling family in Urbino , the Palazzo Brancaleoni was restored and turned into a summer residence by a group of architects, including Francesco di Giorgio Martini , Annibale della Genga and Paolo Scirri . The last ruler of Rovere, Francesco Maria II. Lived exclusively in the castle of Urbania and was buried here after his death. After his death, the entire duchy fell to the Papal States, whose historical fate it shared from then on. Pope Urban VIII granted the place city rights and elevated it to the rank of diocese, whereupon it took its current name.

coat of arms

The coat of arms of Urbania shows a clerical red and white parasol over a golden lily on a blue background , above each a red and a silver key, crowned by three bees in natural colors. The three bees are taken from the coat of arms of Pope Urban VIII. The Pope himself had the original gadflies (Tafani) of the Barberini be in his family crest replace golden bees. The golden lily is the symbol of the Guelfs.

economy

Majolica plate from Urbania, Princeton University Art Museum

Majolica production began in Casteldurante around the 13th century . The city's master potters were among the most famous in Italy during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and some of the pieces are exhibited in museums in the province and beyond. The tradition of pottery and its painting reached another high point in the 19th century by the Albani family and has lasted to this day. The ceramics with their strong, characteristic colors are now among the souvenirs of the tourist town of Urbania.

Urbania, which was originally dominated by agriculture, is also important in the production of denim , which was founded in the late 1950s by the pastor Don Corrado Catani. The city's factories supply fabrics for the entire Italian fashion industry and have given the industrial area in the Metauro Valley the names Valle del Jeans (“Valley of Jeans”) and Valle Blu (“Blue Valley”). The companies producing here include Incom, Ideal Blue, Italian Fashion, Quadrifoglio and Blue-Line .

Tourism is also an important economic factor today, with Urbania focusing on educational travelers who come to the city for art trips, pottery and language courses or nature and environmental trips.

Attractions

Chiesa e Convento di San Francesco

The altar of the Franciscan Church with a painting of the Immaculate Mary by Giorgio Picchi from 1582

The church of San Francesco was built in 1215 together with the Franciscan monastery and is the oldest monastery building after the Abbey of St. Cristoforo. On the right there is a Romanesque bell tower from the 14th century. The church belongs to the Franciscan convent. In a side altar of the church there is a painting from 1586 by Giorgio Picchi depicting the birth of Christ. The crucifixion of Christ by Agostino Apolloni, made around 1597, can be seen in another side altar.

San Cristoforo Cathedral

The cathedral dates back to around the year 1000, but received its present form in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the facade dates from the 19th century. Part of the church treasure is exhibited in the Diocesan Museum (Museo Arcidiocesano) .

Chiesa del Crocifisso

The church is the burial place of Duke Francesco Maria II della Rovere. In it there is a picture of Mary by Federico Barocci .

Chiesa dei Morti

Mummies from the Church of the Dead , preserved by a mushroom, excavated and exhibited in 1833

The ducal palace is reflected in the Metauro at night

Earth globe signed by Mercator with the date 1541; stands today in Urbania and is supposed to be one of the 22 existing globes

The chapel was built in 1380 by order of the married couple Cola di Cecco and Antonia di Filippuccio and therefore called Cappella Cola . In 1816 the chapel was handed over and subsequently called Chiesa dei Morti , or “Church of the Dead”. Behind the altar are 18 hipha bombicina Pers from the mold . naturally preserved corpses on display. The "Brotherhood of the Good Death" (Confraternità della Buona Morte) buried the dead here for free since 1567 and looked after the bereaved. The mummified corpses came to the church from the surrounding graves in 1833 when, due to an edict of Napoleon, inner-city cemeteries had to be closed and the condition of the bodies was discovered.

Palazzo Ducale

The Ducal Palace (Palazzo Ducale) , which houses the Museo Civico di Urbania-Casteldurante with attached library and art gallery, was built at the end of the 14th century by the Brancaleoni and redesigned under the della Rovere in the Renaissance style. Above all, the museum exhibits an extensive majolica collection, as well as graphics, drawings and around 100 paintings. Two globes by the German natural scientist Gerhard Mercator from the 16th century are important.

Bramante Theater

The Municipal Theater of Urbania was built over the walls of a fortification in 1864 and named after him in honor of Donato Bramante , whose birth the city claims within its walls.

Barco Ducale

The main entrance of the Barco Ducale

One kilometer north-west of the center is the hunting lodge of the Dukes of Urbino, built in 1465, in a park. It is located on the Metauro and could be reached by boat from the Palazzo Ducale. At the beginning of the 16th century, the building of Girolamo Genga was renovated again after an earthquake from 1741 to 1771, with a church being built in. Some rooms of the castle are open to the public.

Sons and daughters of the church

• Luigi Conti (* 1941), Roman Catholic clergyman, retired Archbishop of Fermo
• Pete Dye (1925-2020), golf architect

literature

• Georg Kauffmann : Reclam's Art Guide Italy, Volume IV: Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Umbria . Reclam, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-15-010206-5 .

Web links

Commons : Urbania  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information page about the city (Italian and English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
2. ↑ Urbanĭa . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 1885-1892, Volume 16, p. 4.
3. ↑ Volker Reinhardt (ed.): The great families of Italy (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 485). Kröner, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-520-48501-X , p. 43.
4. ↑ Portrait of the majolica production on urbania-casteldurante.it (Italian and English)
5. ↑ Report ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on urbania-casteldurante.it 
6. ^ Corrado Leonardi: Guida per le Chiese di Urbania e Museo. 2005.
7. ↑ The Globes by Gerardus Mercator, Information of the Museum in Urbania  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 24th using Google Translate  
8. ↑ Copy in typewriter font in DIN A4 received in the church during a visit, 2011.