It was founded by the Gauls: the Senones, at the start of the fourth century BC, chose this low hill facing the sea and made of it what historians call the capital of the Gauls in Italy. From here, led by Brennus, they marched on Rome, beat its armies and left only after being paid a crushing tribute. The name still says so: Sena Gallica, the Sena of the Gauls. And something of that frontier has remained: the Senigallia area still marks the line between the Gallo-Italic tongues and the dialects of central Italy.
They call it the velvet beach for the sand so fine it goes into the water without a stone: Senigallia has been a seaside resort since the nineteenth century, and the Rotonda a Mare of 1933 — the art nouveau pier on stilts — is its restored symbol. Pius IX, the last pope-king, was born here in 1792, and the Ercolani arcades along the river recall the great duty-free fair that made the town rich. On the hill of Montedoro, a Picene settlement with its necropolis was brought to light by digs lasting almost ten years, carried out above all thanks to the stubbornness of a primary school teacher, Luigina Pieroni. Every August the Summer Jamboree turns the town into the world capital of nineteen-forties and fifties rock'n'roll: vintage, dancing and half a million visitors. The seafood cooking, among the most awarded in Italy, does the rest.
Cattedrale di San Pietro apostolo · Chiesa della Croce · Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie and 2 more
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Next up: Saint Paulinus of Nola, patron of the town «refounded» by Sigismondo Malatesta, Tuesday 4 May
Nearest airport: Ancona, 16 km away
Senigallia is part of 🏖️ Seaside
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📅 Every year, on 4 May
Senigallia celebrates Saint Paulinus of Nola on 4 May; in the 15th century Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, considered the town's «refounder», rebuilt its walls and revived the old Fiera della Maddalena, which became one of Italy's most important fairs.
Cattedrale di San Pietro apostolo Senigallia's eighteenth-century cathedral, with a façade paid for by Pius IX, works by Barocci and a jasper ch Chiesa della Croce Senigallia's seventeenth-century Church of the Cross, lined with gilded wood, with Barocci's Entombment. Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie The Della Rovere Renaissance convent near Senigallia, by Baccio Pontelli, with Perugino's altarpiece. Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena Senigallia's first parish church, linked to the Fiera della Maddalena, with canvases by Domenico Corvi. Museo Pio IX Pius IX's birthplace in Senigallia, with the Mastai Ferretti rooms, the pope's mementoes and Anastasi's canvas 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 Senigallia, but an easy day trip away.
