Overview
As the capital of the province of the same name in Marche, Macerata is a member of the Association of Cities of Art and Culture and boasts one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in 1290.
What to visit
One of the city's most representative monuments is the Arena Sferisterio designed by Ireneo Aleandri, a splendid example of neoclassical architecture that hosts the prestigious Macerata Opera Festival every summer.
The 18th-century Palazzo Buonaccorsi stands in the heart of the city, now home to the ancient and modern art collections and the coach museum.
Aeneid Hall is the sumptuous 18th-century gallery, a civic room in Palazzo Buonaccorsi: the paintings celebrate the exploits of Aeneas, and the vault is frescoed with the mythological Wedding of Bacchus and Ariadne before the Olympian gods.
The 64-metre Civica Tower houses a reconstruction of an astronomical clock with automata similar to the one in Venice, built in 1569 by the Ranieri brothers of Reggio Emilia. An extraordinarily complex machine governs the clock’s different functions: the operation of the carillon, the strokes that mark the hours, the bird that rings the small bell by striking it with its beak, the carousel with the angel and Three Wise Men, the movement of the hand on the hour dial, the movements of the disks of the celestial bodies and the Dragon.
The splendid polychrome dial not only shows the hours, but also the apparent motions of the sky, Sun and Moon and the circuits of the five planets known at the time when the Ranieri brothers completed their feat. The latter function makes this device unique among Renaissance tower clocks and can be admired at 12pm and 6pm.
The 18th-century Lauro Rossi Theatre and Palazzo Ricci, which houses a collection of 20th-century Italian art, are also worth visiting in Macerata.
The main religious architectural sites include the Duomo, built on the site of an earlier church in 1771-1790 according to a design by Cosimo Morelli; the nearby Basilica della Misericordia, rich in stucco and precious marble; and the Church of Santa Maria delle Vergini, a Bramante-style temple housing an 'Epiphany' by Tintoretto.
The typical dish of Macerata is vincisgrassi, a sort of baked lasagna made with sheets of egg pasta, meat sauce, béchamel and cheese.
62100 Macerata, Province of Macerata, Italy
