Overview
The Arch celebrates the emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajan and the important harbour improvements he had personally commissioned. Enthusiasts may add that it is in the Corinthian style, that it is made of Greek marble on a podium of Conero stone, and that there is speculation that it may have been the work of a then prominent figure such as the architect Apollodorus of Damascus.
The three bronze statues that originally crowned the structure depicted the emperor, his wife and sister, were spoils of war from the Saracens as early as the ninth century. At night, the Arch is suggestively illuminated so that it is visible throughout the city.
In the immediate hinterland of the Old Port, under the Cathedral hill, other finds from prehistoric times to the early Middle Ages can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum of the Marches. Reviewing them reveals the history of Ancona and the region through the contacts of the Picenian civilisation with the Greek and Etruscan worlds, not excluding a Celtic invasion from the 4th century BC.
