The patron saints of Fermo are Our Lady of the Assumption and Saint Sabinus of Spoleto, celebrated respectively on 15 and 16 August. The town's most important feast is that of Mary Assumed into Heaven: during this period the Palio dell'Assunta is held, and, since 1982, the modern-era Cavalcata dell'Assunta, run every 15 August.
The metropolitan cathedral, dedicated to Mary Assumed into Heaven, mother church of the archdiocese of the same name, rises atop Sàbulo hill, the town's highest point, its asymmetrical Gothic facade dominating Piazzale del Girfalco, one of the town's main scenic viewpoints. Last century's excavations brought to light, beneath the current building, the remains of an ancient Early Christian church dating from the 6th century; the cathedral also holds a large underground crypt whose altar is a 4th-century sarcophagus containing the remains of Fermo's martyr bishop, Saint Philip. Next to the duomo stands the Diocesan Museum, while in the nearby green area of the Girfalco also stand Villa Vinci, a Capuchin friary until 1820, and the Parco della Rimembranza dedicated to the fallen of the Great War.
