Archaeological itinerary

Thanks to archaeological excavations carried out in 2018, four main phases have been identified in the evolution of the area currently occupied by the square.
Until the construction of the original building of the church of S. Nicolò in the 12th century, the area was probably outside the town limits and used for agricultural purposes, as evidenced by a small canal perhaps linked to a drainage system, a ditch and three wells used towards the end of the Early Middle Ages.
In the 12th-13th century, a small burial ground was created near the church, following its East-West orientation. The change in the area's intended use is indicated by thirteen graves that affect the previous buildings. They are oriented like the smaller original building of the church of S. Nicolò, dating back to the 12th century: ten follow the long side and three the façade. A more precise dating of the graves has not been possible due to the absence of grave goods. 
During the 13th-14th century, the church was renovated in the Gothic style. Evidence of this phase are numerous holes, a pit for working lime and others to contain three-legged wooden lifting machines (‘capre’), which indicate that building work was carried out. These activities involved lowering the external floor level and reducing the graves, which were enclosed in a small burial chamber.
The subsequent urban development, which took place in the post-medieval period, included the area within the neighbourhood, which apparently had already been formed. Vicolo S. Nicolò was no longer linked to the church, but took on a perpendicular orientation to the new main street, Corso Matteotti. The original layout of the alley is today indicated by a wall that delimits it and by a layer of compacted gravel parallel to it.
At the Archaeological Museum of Jesi and its territory (via XV Settembre, 10) some remains found in a pit in the square are currently on display. These small unlined pits were used to throw away bones and solid inorganic waste, and today they are a direct source of information. The remains found in Piazza Pergolesi date from between the 8th and the 15th century and include: a jug in common ceramic, an oil lamp hook, an iron blade, a horseshoe, copper alloy coins and some animal remains.

The Archaeological Museum, a place of learning that exhibits the archaeological finds unearthed in the town of Jesi and its surrounding territory, acts as a supramunicipal cultural institution. The finds are displayed in chronological order in three sections: Prehistory, Protohistory and the Roman Era. Some of the most significant finds are from the ancient Picenian civilization in Monteroberto and Castelbellino, as well as artefacts from the Roman Era, such as the kilns from the Campo Boario and the statues dating back to the Julio-Claudian Dynasty found in Jesi.

Thanks to archaeological excavations carried out in 2017, the urban layout of the centre of medieval Jesi has been reconstructed and four phases have been identified in the evolution of this square. 
Between late antiquity and the Middle Ages the area was frequented and used as a quarry to recover materials from Roman buildings with mosaic rooms (1st century BC - 1st century AD), abandoned and therefore covered by different layers. Wooden houses were probably also located in the area.
Between the 12th and mid-13th centuries, two rows of terraced houses of fairly regular dimensions (16 x 8 m) were built using recycled materials. These houses had a basement which was probably used at least in part as shops, as evidenced by the discovery, inside one of the rooms, of ploughs, pliers, large iron rings and casting waste. The intended use of the other rooms on this floor, hovewer, cannot be identified. Some of them had fireplaces and one had wood plank flooring. The first floor was probably for residential use, although in one case the presence of a fireplace, a food storage pit and the remains of fauna suggests that the cooking of food (boiled boneless meat) took place on the ground floor.
Documents in the Archives show it is highly likely that by 1248 the area was occupied by the original Town Hall together with a series of connected walls that served as a retaining wall due to the existing differences in height or as a fortification. In addition, circular pits lined with brick have been found. These were used to store foodstuffs. The terraced houses had been razed to the ground and the whole area filled in.
The square took on its current rectangular shape at the end of the 15th century, when the church of S. Agostino was moved back and Palazzo della Signoria replaced the original Town Hall. The walls of all the pre-existing buildings were demolished.
The Archaeological Museum of Jesi and its territory hosts some artefacts found in the area now occupied by Piazza Colocci, including: a tabula lusoria, a Roman game board with counters; several coins dating from between the 11th and the 14th century; a fragment of a bowl and one of a mug, both from the 15th century; a bronze brooch from the Middle Ages.

The theatre was built in an urban area near the junction of Costa Lombarda and Via Pergolesi, corresponding to the Cardo and Decumanus Maximus of the Roman town. Unfortunately, not many visible remains are left of the building. Its planimetric reconstruction has been possible through the integrated study of the wall remains in the cellars and on the ground floor of modern buildings with the analysis of aerial photos and floor plans of the houses. The external hemicycle (28.25 m radius) to which the remains of Via Roccabella belong was characterised by a continuous wall with four gates (vomitoria), one of which corresponded to Vicolo Galvani. The analysis of the walls has permitted the dating of the building to the 1st century AD.

In this square, in a large pavilion specially erected for the event, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen was born on 26th December 1194.
It is Jesi’s most important and historically significant square as it has been ascertained that the surface area largely coincides with what had been the ancient Roman forum. Flanking it are several remarkable buildings, including the Cathedral, the former church and monastery of San Floriano, now the Valeria Moriconi Studio Theatre and Centre, the Bishop's Palace and several former noble residences which date back mainly to the 18th and 19th centuries.

A building from the Roman period (1st century BC - 1st century AD) consisting in two concentric brick walls separated by a cavity and accessible by a double internal staircase. It could be a cistern connected to the aqueduct meant to supply the town with water or a small natatio (swimming pool) linked to a bathhouse hypothesised near the ancient Aesis Forum (today named Piazza Federico II).
At the time of its discovery, at the end of 1700, a cycle of sculpturs was found inside it consisting of headless statues and portraits of Emperors Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula (I century AD).
These statues are currently shown at the Archaeological Museum in Jesi.

Built towards the end of the Early Middle Ages (9th-10th century AD) on the remains of a private house of which a mosaic floor is preserved (3rd-4th century AD), the original church of S. Pietro was renovated in Gothic style between the 13th and 14th centuries. The arch and the inscription of 1294 which are visible on the side overlooking Costa Baldassini and the remains of frescoes and some tombs in the basement all belong to this phase. The porch that overlooked the entrance was then incorporated into the external staircase. In the 17th century, part of the church was transformed into a crypt, and in the late 18th century the entire building was completely renovated.

Costruita verso la fine dell’Alto Medioevo (IX-X secolo d.C.) sui resti di una abitazione privata della quale si conserva un pavimento a mosaico (III-IV secolo d.C.), l’originaria chiesa di S. Pietro viene ristrutturata in stile gotico tra il XIII e il XIV secolo. A questa fase appartengono l’arco e l’iscrizione del 1294 visibili sul lato che affaccia su Costa Baldassini ed i resti di affreschi ed alcune tombe nel sotterraneo. Il portico all’epoca prospiciente l’ingresso è oggi inglobato nella scalinata esterna. Nel XVII secolo parte della chiesa viene trasformata in cripta e nella seconda metà del XVIII secolo l’intero edificio è completamente rinnovato.

Porta Valle and the town walls of Jesi (of medieval origin and built on the perimeter of the Roman walls) were largely renovated in the second half of the 15th century by architect Baccio Pontelli. In 1465, the Town Council decided to move the gate about 10 metres forward in order to include a water source within the town walls in the southern part of the town. Today, it is still possible to see that the medieval wall abruptly ends, while the gate is further ahead. During an emergency archaeological excavation carried out in 2007, two sections of the Roman brick walls were also found, one with the same orientation as the medieval fortification, the other with a SE-NW orientation. It seems to be a specific type of fortification in which the gate was a few metres behind the walls, so as to create a trapezoidal space in front, useful to attack enemies from several sides in case of siege. In Le Marche, examples of this type can be found in Urbs Salvia and Septempeda.

It stands in the area between the town centre of Jesi and the Esino River and is among the town’s oldest churches.
Founded in the 5th century, it is the only abbey in the area around Jesi that has survived through the Middle Ages. Today it is in neoclassical style, with a single nave. However, this was the result of renovations begun in the mid-1700s that completely transformed the church.
Over time, the building underwent several changes that are particularly visible in the crypt, which preserves remains dating from different historical periods.
These include a sarcophagus which is the oldest testimony to Christian sculpture in Vallesina; three tombs, which can be dated between the 3rd and 4th century AD and could indicate that the church was originally a funerary basilica; and a fresco dating from the 10th-11th century and featuring the face of an angel, which is probably what remains of an Annunciation.
In 1300 AD, the church was renovated in the Gothic style. It had three naves and an elevated altar, and the floor was lower than in the modern-day building. The renovations carried out in the 18th century completely changed its architecture. Still visible today are the old arches along the nave – subsequently closed – embedded inside the right-hand wall.
Lastly, inside the church there is a granite column portraying a Christ at the column painted in the 17th century but that also reveals traces of an older painting.

Campo Boario is an area located to the south-east of Jesi's old town. Over the last century, numerous archaeological finds were discovered in this place. At the beginning of the 20th century, several graves were found near the Church of San Savino Nuovo. They were part of a single necropolis located along a Roman road. Thanks to the grave goods, a kylix (wine cup) and several oil lamps, the graves have been dated to the late ancient period, between the 4th and 5th centuries AD. 
In addition, during the construction of the ‘Federico II’ secondary school in the 1970s, an important pottery workshop was discovered. It specialised in the production of black-glazed pottery (the most common one in the Republican era) and was active between the 3rd and mid-2nd century BC, therefore at the beginning of the Romanisation of this territory. Next to the workshop the remains of one or more residential buildings were found, probably part of one single domus of 2000 square metres. Some rooms, still preserved beneath the school, have floors in brick tiles arranged to form geometric designs which can be dated between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Next to these excavations, in 1974 the remains of the abbey of San Savino, which are still visible today, were found by chance. It was a building divided into three naves by a series of five pillars. Local historians traced its foundation back to the Goths (first half of the 6th century) and its restoration to the Lombards (7th-8th century). Subsequent excavations in the 1980s, with the discovery of artefacts dating from between the 6th and 8th centuries, confirmed the early medieval origin of this religious building.