The ideal city of the Renaissance
On two hills in the north of the Marche, surrounded by green valleys, Urbino is one of the jewels of the Italian Renaissance, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998. In the fifteenth century, under Duke Federico da Montefeltro, a condottiero who became rich fighting for the great Italian powers and was also a refined humanist and collector, this small town became one of the most brilliant courts in Europe, where artists, architects, mathematicians and men of letters gathered, and where the ideal of the Renaissance city and the perfect courtier, described by Baldassarre Castiglione, took shape.
The symbol of this golden age is the Palazzo Ducale, which Federico had built from the 1460s by the architects Luciano Laurana and Francesco di Giorgio Martini: a "city in the form of a palace", with an elegant arcaded courtyard, monumental staircases, halls, gardens and, on the side facing the valley, the famous façade of the Torricini, two slender towers framing a series of loggias. Inside, the most extraordinary room is the Studiolo of the Duke, a small study entirely covered with wooden inlays that create the illusion of open cabinets, books, instruments and landscapes. The palace houses the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, with masterpieces such as the Flagellation and the Madonna di Senigallia by Piero della Francesca, La Muta by Raphael, and the mysterious panel of the Ideal City, a perfect, empty Renaissance square. Urbino is also a lively university town.
Tip: allow at least half a day for the palace; from the Torricini the view of the hills is splendid at sunset.
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