Cupra Alta

The fortified village of Marano, the mediaeval core of Cupra Marittima, was a free municipality from the 11th century and had a well-equipped port, thanks to which it traded with Venice, Chioggia, Ragusa, Sebenico and Durazzo. The earliest traces of Marano date back to the 9th-10th centuries and this is the place that best tells the story of the town and its territory: political, administrative, social, cultural and economic life took place here from the year 1000 until the Unification of Italy. Visitors can admire Villa Grisostomi, the mediaeval Church of Santa Maria in Castello, Palazzo Sforza, the Archaeological Museum of the territory, the Church of the Annunziata, which houses the permanent artistic nativity scene of Spanish art, and the Church of the Suffrage with its splendid altarpiece of the 'Deposition'. The Archaeological Park of Cupra Marittima, to the north of the town, where the urban layout of the Roman city is recognisable, and the Piceno Malacological Museum, which houses, with its more than 900,000 specimens, one of the most important collections of shells in the world, are worth a visit.