What to see in Rimini, itinerary including the main monuments and places of interest, including the Arch of Augustus, the Tiberius Bridge and the Malatesta Temple.
Tourist information
Famous summer resort of the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is a very popular tourist destination, thanks also to its remarkable artistic heritage.
Located at the mouth of the Marecchia river, at the crossroads of the Roman consular roads Flaminia, Popilia and Emilia, Rimini has very ancient origins.
Of Umbrian origin, it was the domain of the Gauls, before becoming a Latin colony in the second century BC.
After ups and downs in the barbarian era, Rimini became possession of the Church.
From then on, a period of struggle began which ended with the victory of the Malatesta family in 1295, of which the greatest exponent was Sigismund.
In the sixteenth century, at the end of the Malatesta domination, the city passed to the Papal States, to which it remained subject until the unification of Italy.
What see
The Arch of Augustus, which is one of the best examples of Roman architecture dating back to 27 BC, was erected in honor of the emperor who had reactivated the Via Flaminia, as indicated in the inscription positioned above the tympanum.
Incorporated in the walls, it had the function of access door to the city, characterized by a single vault and tympanum supported by two columns, ending with a battlements added in the following epoch.
Continuing on Corso Augusto, it is possible to reach the Tempietto di Sant'Antonio da Padova, built in the place where this Saint performed a miracle in 1200.
In Piazza Tre Martiri stands the Clock Tower, built in the eighteenth century above the remains of some sixteenth-century arches.
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The Malatesta Temple, one of the greatest architectural examples of the Renaissance, was built with the participation of the greatest architects and sculptors of the time.
Originally it constituted the Church of San Francesco, built in the thirteenth century following the Romanesque-Gothic style.
In 1447 it was transformed into a temple-mausoleum for Sigismondo Malatesta, who entrusted the elaboration of the project to Leon Battista Alberti.
The works, carried out by Matteo de ’Pasti, were suspended in 1457, leaving the work unfinished.
Following the damage suffered during the Second World War, it was almost entirely rebuilt.
The unfinished facade and side are inspired by classical architecture, fusing the structures and forms proper to the classical temple in a very original way.
At the end of the left side stands the fourteenth-century bell tower.
In the interior with a single nave, along the sides there are chapels with majestic round arches, delimited by marble balustrades.
The first chapel on the left preserves the ark of ancestors and descendants, a work created by Agostino di Duccio in 1454.
In the chapel of Isotta or degli Angeli, on the right there is a fourteenth-century Crucifix by an uncertain author, bas-reliefs made by Agostino di Duccio and the Tomb of Isotta degli Atti, probably made by Matteo de 'Pasti.
In the Chapel of the Relics is preserved the remarkable fresco torn from the wall made by Piero della Francesca, depicting Sigismondo Malatesta genuflected before his patron and dating back to the fifteenth century.
At the entrance is the Tomb of Sigismondo Malatesta, an unfinished work attributed to Francesco di Simone Ferrucci and Bernardo Ciuffagni.
The Gambalunga Palace houses the civic library, where precious manuscripts are kept, as well as the municipal museum which includes an interesting archaeological section.
Palazzo dell'Arengo, in Piazza Cavour, is a thirteenth-century Romanesque-Gothic construction, which has been remodeled several times and consists of two floors, the first of which has pointed arches resting on imposing pillars, while the second, characterized by large windows, ends with battlements.
In the large room of the Arengo there are two frescoes, the Last Supper of the sixteenth century and the Last Judgment on canvas, made by a painter from Rimini, whose name is unknown, in the fourteenth century.
Also in Piazza Cavour, which constitutes the city center, there is the sixteenth-century Palazzo Comunale, built for the first time on a project by Serlio and in 1687 by F. Garampi.
In the square there are also a sixteenth century circular fountain with Roman elements, a statue depicting Pope Paul V, from the seventeenth century, and the Palazzo del Podestà, dating from the fourteenth century but deeply restored in the early twentieth century.
A portion of the square is delimited by the Municipal Theater.
The Church of Sant'Agostino, erected in the thirteenth century in Romanesque-Gothic style and reworked later, presents itself on the outside with a bell tower and an apse dating back to the original layout, while in the interior with a single nave there is a remarkable series of frescoes dating back to the fourteenth century, works performed by local painters.
Castel Sigismondo is a turreted fortress of the fifteenth century, commissioned and designed by Sigismondo, probably in collaboration with Brunelleschi.
The entire project of the manor, much more elaborate, is depicted in the fresco by Piero della Francesca which is located in the Malatesta Temple.
Traveling along Corso di Augusto you arrive at the Tiberius Bridge on the Marecchia, which began in the time of Emperor Augustus and ended at the time of Tiberius, formed by five Istrian stone arches and still in a good state of conservation.
The Church of San Giuliano, built in the ninth century and rebuilt in the sixteenth, preserves significant pictorial works inside, including the one entitled "San Giuliano and facts of his life", executed by Bittino da Faenza in 1409, and the "Martyrdom of San Giuliano ”, built by Veronese.
In the eighteenth-century Jesuit College, formerly the Civil Hospital, there are the Roman Lapidary and the Pinacoteca of the City Museum.
In the art gallery there are remarkable works of art by Ghirlandaio and his collaborators, in addition to Bellini's Pietà, the Vocation of San Matteo by Cagnacci and the splendid Crucifix on a panel by Giovanni da Rimini.
In the thalassotherapy institute, at Miramare, sandblasting is carried out against osteoarthritis, rheumatism and neuritis.
