Cattolica appears in Dante's Inferno: two lords of Fano, says the prophecy, will be thrown into the sea «near Cattolica», tied inside a sack. Those were the years when the village was only just beginning, founded in 1271 by people who came down from the Pesaro hills.
Before that there was Conca, a castle that vanished around the year 1000 — the maps call it the «sunken city» — of which a tower remains on the hill. Then came the inns on the Flaminia, the Malatesta fortress begun in 1490, and finally the sea: in 1856 the physician Domenico Cervesi published a book on sea bathing, and the beach became a trade. A comune since 1896, it now has 16,550 residents.
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📅 Every year, on 30 April; since 1973, MystFest, a mystery and crime fiction festival, at the end of June
Cattolica celebrates Saint Pius V on 30 April; since 1973, MystFest, an international mystery and crime fiction festival, has been held at the end of June, while during the Festa di Stella Maris fishing boats carry the Madonna's statue out to sea after a procession.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Cattolica, but an easy day trip away.
