Town itineraries: 1- Roman times

Any visit to Roman Fano must inevitably start at the Arch of Augustus.
Fano’s symbol from time immemorial, during the Roman period it was the main gate of the Colonia Julia Fanestris, built by the Emperor Augustus on the site of a settlement which had grown around the Republican Fanum Fortunae (a temple dedicated to the Goddess of Fortune).
The monument, built at the point where the Via Flaminia leads into the Decumanum Maximum (or main street) of the city, can be dated from the inscription on the frieze to the year 9 A.D..
Built on the outer side with square blocks of Istrian stone, the Gate comprises two smaller lateral barrel-vaulted arches and a larger central barrel-vaulted arch, the keystone of which is decorated with a zoomorphic decoration which is no longer recognisable today. The stones from the topmost section, which was reduced to rubble by the artillery of the Duke of Urbino Federico da Montefeltro in 1463, were used to build the adjacent church of San Michele.

Continuing onwards, our route takes us to the Augustan Walls.
Built on the orders of the Emperor Augustus in his grandiose project to monumentalise the city, it was finished in the year 9 A.D.. The walls still today preserve two thirds of the original circuit.
The walls, which were rescued from demolition in the 1920s, are constructed with small blocks of cut sandstone laid in horizontal rows (known as opus vittatum) and in-filled with a solid mass of pebbles and mortar. At regular intervals they are interrupted by sturdy cylindrical towers.
In addition to the well-known Arch of Augustus, there is also a fine secondary gate, the "Porta della Mandria".

Impressive traces of wall have come to light beneath the Church and Monastery of St.Augustine These have captured the imagination and stirred interest among researchers for centuries.
Identified either as part of the Basilica designed by the architect Vitruvio and described in "De Architectura" or alternatively as part of the temple of Fanum Fortunae which gave the city it’s name, the remains comprise a long wall with small blocks of stone punctuated by pilasters and windows, small fan-shaped arches, a stretch of wall and apse, columns and drainage channels.

The archaeological section of the Civic Museum, which has been housed in various rooms of the Palazzo Malatestiano since the early 1900s, holds archaeological finds excavated in Fano and its surrounding area over the past centuries.
Under the 15^th Century portico of the Corte Malatestiana are displayed various inscriptions and in particular the large mutilated statue of Emperor Claudius, a headless statue dressed in a toga, and a fine fragment of a statue with breastplate and knee-length boots. A mid-2^nd century mosaic, known as the Panther mosaic, is also on display here.
Prehistoric, Picene and Greek finds are on display in the ground floor rooms. Most of these exhibits come from the area around Fano (ampullae, lachcrymal vases, a collection of oil lamps, fragments of glass, terracotta votive objects, statuettes, brooches, rings and other objects) of various, and sometimes uncertain, origin.
Of particular interest is the Gracchus Stone, which provides evidence that the territory of Fano was subject to the Sempronian Law of 133 BC, a statuette of a boy with toga praetexta, bulla (or pendant worn by Roman children) and sandals and various stone and marble heads including a splendid female head with hair styled according to the fashion of the Octavian period (end 1^st century BC).
The collection also contains various architectural and sculptural fragments, amphorae, terracotta floor tiles and the centre-piece from the Neptune mosaic, showing the god standing on his chariot drawn by four sea-horses (late 2^nd - early 3^rd century AD).