The city

Matelica in ancient times

Matelica has a rich archaeological heritage, largely acquired during the recent discoveries carried out in several areas of its territory.  The most ancient archaeological finds, represented by flintstone instruments, date back to the Palaeolithic. The Neolithic is known thanks to archaeological finds mostly coming from the settlement discovered at Braccano.  The territory became more populated between the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 6th century when, along the valley, villages and tumular tombs with a circular ditch spread and developed. The communities, who inhabited this territory, were led by a high aristocratic class who took their wealth and prosperity from the farming exploitation of the fruitful tablelands along the Esino River, cattle-breeding and trade exchanges. The level of wealth reached by those people can be found in the magnificent princely apparatuses consisting in weapons moulded with great skilfulness, bronze sceptres, amber and noble metal ornaments and ivory artefacts accurately carved, which are now exposed at the Archaeological Civic Museum in Matelica. During the following centuries, the area was contaminated by elements belonging to the Celtic civilization who lived together with the autochthonous people till the eve of the Roman conquest. During the period of the Roman municipium, which was instituted around the first half of the 1st century B.C., the Roman city rose on an earlier settlement, in the middle of the territory, where the Crinacci Stream (the Imbrigno Rivulet) merges with the Esino River.   The Roman town knew its greatest floridness during the first centuries of the Empire. To that age belongs the more representative epigraphic document dating from the municipium age, which is the marble base in honour of Caio Arrio Clemente. In that period, urban roads, public edifices (termae) and private residences (domus) were planned and built. The domus are characterized by common polychromatic, geometric and figurative mosaics, as well as by the walls splendidly decorated, which were made by very specialized artists who worked under local, well-educated and refined clients.  During the Roman age, the territory was characterized by the presence of farms and residential houses (villae): amongst the more famous residences is the villa at Fonticelle, whose rooms are embellished with mosaic flooring and marble-faced walls.   The area, which was occupied by the Roman town, developed during the following centuries, as testify the many pieces of pottery and majolica dating from the Middle Age and the Renaissance, which are exhibited at the Civic Archaeological Museum, and it continues living till today on the same site, since over 2700 years.

The archaeological site.
"The Piermarini Theatre". Beneath the stage of the 19th century theatre, archaeologists discovered heated rooms, a mosaic floor in white tesserae and vestiges of a sewer conduit which belong to a Roman thermae. Dating: First Imperial Age.  Under the stalls of the theatre were emerged the remains of a pre-roman edifice: the archaeological finds, recovered during the excavation, are currently exposed at the Civic Archaeological Museum. Dating: 6th-4th century B.C. 
The Government Palace. Inside two shops with the entrance on the west side of Enrico Mattei Square, can be admired portions of rooms embellished with geometric and figurative mosaics: one of them in white and black tesserae with a tied circles motif; in another mosaic can be seen lower limbs of human figures and a branch with a bird roosting on it, as well as a fragment of a big animal, maybe a feline. Dating: 1st – beginning of 2nd century A.D. 
The Ottoni Palace. Here can be seen rooms of a domus with polychromatic geometric mosaics; amongst them is a mosaic in white tesserae with a motif of small crosses in black tesserae, as well as portions of frescoed walls. Dating: first half of the 2nd century A.D.

Museums and archaeological collections  
The Civic Archaeological Museum. The Finaguerra Palace. The Museum’s archaeological collections consist in finds largely discovered during the recent excavation carried out in Matelica’s territory and dating from the prehistory, the Picene age (8th-4th century B.C.), Roman period, Middle Age and Renaissance. Worth remembering are the rich princely collections going back to the 8th-7th century B.C., the solar marble clock belonging to the Hellenistic and Roman period, known as the “Matelica’s Globe”, as well as the mosaic representing deities and mythological figures dating back to the 1st century A.D. 
The Town Hall. Lapidary inscription. It is a 19th century collection of honorary and funerary epigraphs which date from the first centuries of the Roman municipium to the 2nd and the 3rd century A.D; here visitors can see fragments of architectonic decoration and sculptures.  
The Piersanti Museum, Archaeological collections. The 18th century collection, consisting in archaeological finds acquired from the antique trade, is made up of fragments of statues and relieves going back to the Roman age, as well as an Etruscan mirror embellished with bronze decorations and belonging to the 3rd century B.C. Between the 19th century and the 20th century were collected the archaeological finds which are exhibited on the first floor of the Museum; amongst them tourists can admire prehistoric flintstone artefacts, iron weapons, achromatic or painted vases coming from tombs; tombstones, oil-lamps, balsamari and bronze artefacts dating from the Roman age.