Urbino
Discover Urbino
A concise introduction to Urbino, its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
Urbino stands at about 485 metres on two hills in the Montefeltro, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, with roughly fourteen thousand residents and a similar number of students in term.
The Palazzo Ducale is the town. Built for Federico da Montefeltro from the 1450s, it is less a fortress than a machine for civilised living, and it now houses the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche.
The collection includes Piero della Francesca's Flagellation of Christ and Madonna di Senigallia, Raphael's La Muta, Paolo Uccello's predella of the desecrated host, and the two painted panels of an ideal city.
Raphael was born here in 1483, in a house on the steep street that carries his name and is open to visitors.
The Oratorio di San Giovanni Battista holds a complete cycle of International Gothic frescoes painted by the Salimbeni brothers in 1416.
The historic centre has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1998.