Overview
Today, three driveway bridges connect the Mole with the city, but when the gigantic structure took shape around 1740 it was only accessible by boat. The idea was an artificial island where commercial cargo and incoming people could be kept temporarily well away, for fear they might bring epidemics. In the course of time, the Mole gradually became a military hospital, a sugar refinery, a barracks and finally the cultural centre it is today, but the small temple in the centre is still named after St Roch, the protector against the plague. Both the small sacred building and the entrance portal to the city are built of Istrian stone, almost a homage to the lands beyond the Adriatic.
The name of the architect who built it, Luigi Vanvitelli, has come to indicate the Mole in relatively recent times, replacing the traditional name of Lazzaretto. The transformation into a centre of culture with festivals and art exhibitions was also marked by the opening of the State Tactile Museum Omero, a multi-sensory space that brings the visually impaired and blind closer to the world of art: plaster casts and wooden models of famous sculptures from every country and era can be approached and explored with the fingers, together with original sculptures by contemporary Italian artists.
From the Mole, one passes into the centre of Ancona through the late 18th-century Porta Pia. Next to it is the harbour, and starting to walk along it means soon reaching the main Piazza della Repubblica, with the Teatro delle Muse and the inevitable tourist offices to book ferry passages.
