By Ines Keane
Start with a number that sounds wrong. According to Wikipedia, Urbino had 14,786 people in April 2017. Britannica’s estimate for 2006 is about 15,373. Neither figure is large, and yet this is a town that UNESCO describes as a pinnacle of Renaissance art and architecture.
Where it is
Urbino sits in the Marche, in central Italy, in the foothills of the northern Apennines, at an elevation of 451 metres, says Wikipedia. The Visit Le Marche guide gives travel times: about 45 minutes by car from Pesaro, an hour from Rimini and an hour and forty minutes from Bologna. The same guide says the historic centre is best explored on foot, and the slope is the reason.
What UNESCO says
The UNESCO World Heritage page records the inscription as 1998, under criteria (ii) and (iv). It says the small hill town “experienced a great cultural flowering in the 15th century”, drawing artists and scholars from across Italy and beyond. Then comes the part we found most interesting. The page says Urbino’s economic and cultural stagnation from the 16th century onward helped it keep much of its Renaissance appearance. Our reading: a town that stopped growing was a town that stopped rebuilding. UNESCO does not put it that way, but its sentence points there.
The duke and the palace
Wikipedia’s article on the town gives Federico da Montefeltro as Duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482, a soldier-diplomat and patron of art and literature. Britannica adds his son Guidobaldo, who ruled from 1482 to 1508. The Ducal Palace was begun for Federico around the middle of the fifteenth century. The palace article gives no exact year. It names Maso di Bartolomeo as the first builder and Luciano Laurana as the architect hired for the substructure, who left before the living quarters were started. Who finished the job is uncertain, it says, with Donato Bramante, a native of Urbino, a possible contributor.
Inside is the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, holding works by Raphael, Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello and Titian, according to Wikipedia. The palace article also describes the studiolo, a small study of 3.60 by 3.35 metres, decorated with intarsia (wood inlay) and trompe-l’oeil shelves and instruments. Visit Le Marche, a regional guide, mentions a spiral ramp built so that horses and carts could reach the upper floors.
Raphael, and two birthdays
Here the sources part. Britannica says Raphael was born in Urbino on 6 April 1483. Italia.it, the national tourism board, says he was born in the family house on 28 March 1483. Both agree on the year and the town.
The tourism board adds that his father, Giovanni Santi, bought the house in 1460, that the Raphael Academy acquired it in 1873, and that it now shows a coffered first-floor room, a fresco of the Madonna and Child in the room believed to be his birthplace, a drawing attributed to Bramante and a collection of Renaissance ceramics.
Clay and glaze
That last item connects to the town’s other trade. Wikipedia says local clay supported earthenware workshops making tin-glazed maiolica, and that from the 1520s the Della Rovere dukes encouraged the industry, which exported across Italy. Britannica says Urbino was known for maiolica until the seventeenth century. The two agree on the ceramic trade.
Dates in order
- 1444 to 1482: Federico da Montefeltro rules, according to Wikipedia.
- 1482 to 1508: Guidobaldo rules, according to Britannica.
- 1483: Raphael born, according to Britannica and Italia.it.
- 1506: the University of Urbino founded, according to Wikipedia and Britannica.
- 1520s: the Della Rovere dukes encourage the maiolica industry, according to Wikipedia.
- 1626: absorbed into the Papal States, according to Britannica.
- 1860: absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy, according to Britannica.
- 1998: UNESCO inscription.
Walking it
Visit Le Marche lists a few stops beyond the palace: the fourteenth-century Fortezza Albornoz at the highest point above the centre, the botanical garden run by the university, and a viewpoint near the centre. Other towns within about an hour include Gradara and Corinaldo.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia (open encyclopaedia), Britannica (encyclopaedia), UNESCO (the listing body), Italia.it (national tourism board) and Visit Le Marche (a regional guide). Where two disagree, both are given.
What we left out
Opening hours, tickets and transport timetables, which change. Religious interiors. The student population, which we did not find in a source. Anything about the town’s later political history.
Quick answers
When was Urbino listed by UNESCO? In 1998, according to the UNESCO World Heritage page, under criteria (ii) and (iv).
Where was Raphael born? In Urbino in 1483, according to Britannica and Italia.it, though they give different days, 6 April and 28 March.
What is the Ducal Palace used for today? According to Wikipedia, it houses the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, with works by Raphael, Piero della Francesca and others.
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Roam first. Shop later.