Ancona
Discover Ancona
A concise introduction to Ancona, its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
Ancona is the capital of the Marche, a city of around a hundred thousand people built on and between two hills at the point where the Conero promontory turns the Adriatic coast back on itself.
The port is the reason for the city and still its business: the largest passenger port on the Adriatic, with ferries to Greece, Croatia and Albania alongside commercial traffic.
The Arch of Trajan, built in AD 115 on the quay, commemorates the emperor's rebuilding of the harbour at his own expense and is among the best-preserved Roman arches anywhere.
Above the city, the cathedral of San Ciriaco stands on the site of a Greek temple, a Romanesque church with an early dome and Byzantine detail.
The Mole Vanvitelliana, a pentagonal artificial island built in the 1730s as a quarantine station, is now the city's main exhibition space.
Ten kilometres south, the Riviera del Conero has the best beaches on the central Adriatic.