Osimo
Encyclopedia
Osimo is a town and comune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

of the Marche
Marche
The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona , and lowest in the province of Macerata...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, in the province of Ancona
Province of Ancona
The Province of Ancona is a province in the Marche region of central Italy. Its capital is the city of Ancona. The province has an area of 1940 km² and a 2006 population of 465,906 in 49 comuni , see Comunes of the Province of Ancona....

, 15 km south of that town by rail. It is situated on a hill near the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...

.

Silk-spinning and the raising of cocoons are carried on.

History

Vetus Auximum was founded by the same Greek colonists of Ancona; later it was conteded between the Gauls
Gauls
The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....

 and the Piceni, until conquered by the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, who used it as a fortress for their northern Picenum
Picenum
Picenum was a region of ancient Italy. The name is an exonym assigned by the Romans, who conquered and incorporated it into the Roman Republic. Picenum was the birthplace of such notables as Pompey the Great and his father Pompeius Strabo. It was situated in what is now Marche...

 settlement starting from 174 BC. The walls were made of large rectangular stones which are still there in some part. It was a colony until 157 BC. The family of Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...

 were its protectors and resisted Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 in 49 BC. It is considered to have been important during imperial times due to inscriptions and monuments in its town square.

In the 6th century it was besieged twice in the course of the Gothic War, by Belisarius
Belisarius
Flavius Belisarius was a general of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously....

 and Totila
Totila
Totila, original name Baduila was King of the Ostrogoths from 541 to 552 AD. A skilled military and political leader, Totila reversed the tide of Gothic War, recovering by 543 almost all the territories in Italy that the Eastern Roman Empire had captured from his Kingdom in 540.A relative of...

; the Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 historian Procopius
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...

 said it was the leading town of Picenum.

Later it was a Papal possession, but in 1100 it was a free commune. It was returned to the Popes by Cardinal Gil de Albornoz, while in 1399-1430 it was a fief of the Malatesta
House of Malatesta
The House of Malatesta was an Italian family that ruled over Rimini from 1295 until 1500, as well as other lands and towns in Romagna.Malatesta da Verucchio The House of Malatesta was an Italian family that ruled over Rimini from 1295 until 1500, as well as (in different periods) other lands and...

 family, who built here a rocca ("castle", now disappeared). Subsequently it was again part of the Papal States
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...

 until the unification of Italy in 1861.

Main sights

Osimo retains a portion of its ancient town wall (2nd century BCE).

The restored Romanesque-Gothic cathedral
Osimo Cathedral
Osimo Cathedral or the Church of San Leopardo is the principal church of Osimo in Italy, and co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Ancona-Osimo.- History :...

 (8th-12th centuries) has a portal with sculptures of the 13th century, an old crypt, a fine bronze font of the 16th century and a series of portraits of all the bishops of the old diocese of Osimo
Diocese of Osimo
The Diocese of Osimo was a Roman Catholic diocese in Italy.It was founded in the seventh century and in 1725 merged with the Diocese of Cingoli to form the Diocese of Osimo e Cingoli.It was contained within the Papal States.-External links:*...

. The baptistery is from the early 17th century and also has a notable baptismal font.

The town hall contains a number of statues found on the site of the ancient forum. The second oldest church in Osimo is that of San Giuseppe da Copertino (Saint Joseph of Cupertino), built in the 13th century

Under the town is a large series of tunnels with esoteric bas-reliefs.

The new castle (1489), of which parts remain today, was built by Baccio Pontelli
Baccio Pontelli
Baccio Pontelli was an Italian architect. Baccio is an abbreviation of Bartolomeo.Pontelli was born in Florence. Passing the phase of artistic formation with Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano in Florence, and influenced by Francesco di Giorgio Martini during the trip to Urbino , he was an in-layer...

.

People from Osimo

  • Andrea Cionna
    Andrea Cionna
    Andrea Cionna, born in 1968, is an Italian athlete from Osimo in the Province of Ancona. He holds the world record for the fastest marathon run by a totally blind man, set in 2:31:59 in Rome in 2007, and has won two bronze medals in blind long-distance running at the Paralympic Games.Cionna first...

    (born in 1968), holder of the world record for the fastest marathon run by a totally blind man
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