Macerata

The centro storico is located on a hill between the Chienti and Potenza rivers. Together with the modern town, sprawling on the plain below, it has a population of about 41,000. There is a lift (elevator) connecting the two towns. The town is solid but unostentatious, being built between the 1600s and 1900s. In the central Piazza della Libertà is the Loggia dei Mercanti with two-tier arcades dating from the Renaissance.

There are a number of striking palazzi, mostly along Corso Matteotti, including Palazzo dei diamanti. Next to the Loggia dei Mercanti, Corso della Repubblica leads to Piazza Vittorio Veneto where, in the Palazzo Ricci, there is a museum and art gallery: the most important artpiece is the Madonna and Child by Carlo Crivelli. Another museum is the Museo delle Carrozze (carriages).  The cathedral dates from the 1100s.

There is a University of Macerata (founded in 1290) and an Art school, two publishing houses (Liberilibri and Quodlibet) and therefore, Jazz clubs and the like.

The Palazzo Buonaccorsi was built 1700-1720 for Count Raimondo Buonaccorsi and his son Cardinal Simone Buonaccorsi using designs by Giovanni Battista Contini. The piano nobile is known for the Sala dell’Eneide, decorated with frescoes by the Rambaldi, Dardani, Solimena, and canvases by Garzi. Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole painted a canvas. Other submissions were from Gambarini, Balestra, Lazzarini, and Franceschini. See main entry at Palazzo Buonaccorsi.

Just north of the town, at the Villa Potenza, lie the remains of ancient Helvia Recina, a Roman settlement destroyed by the Visigoths.  South of the town is the Romanesque church of San Claudio al Chienti: its unusual shape is due to one church being built on top of the remains of another.

Famous residents include: 1) the mathematician and humanist Matteo Ricci.  Ricci was the first western man to enter Beijing in 1601 and to translate into Chinese many Western classics like Euclid, Cicero and many others, 2) Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984), the Italian scholar of oriental cultures, was born in Macerata. He is the recipient of the 1978 Jawaharlal Nehru Award for international understanding and a pioneer of archaeological excavations in various locations in Asia, from Iran to Tibet, adn 3) the Futurist painter and Bauhaus architect Ivo Pannaggi was born and died in Macerata (1901 to 1981) after living in Rome, Berlin and in Norway.

Frazioni (suburbs) include: Acquesalate, Acquevive, Botonto San Giacomo, Botonto Sant’Isidoro, Cervare, Cimarella, Cincinelli, Collevario, Consalvi, Corneto, Helvia Recina, Isola, Madonna del Monte, Montanello, Piediripa, Sforzacosta, Valle, Vallebona, Valteia, Villa Potenza
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