Montefeltro and the duchy of Urbino represented the ancient domains of Federico da Montefeltro, a warrior lord with the dream / obsession of the “ideal city”. His court was one of the driving forces of the Renaissance, like Rome, Venice, Florence. Each ducal palace (that of Urbino, that of Urbania), each hunting lodge respects the aesthetic canons of the Renaissance and not by chance recalls the proportions and ideal symmetry that at the end of the fifteenth century Leon Battista Alberti codified and implemented in the nearby structure of the Rimini Cathedral (built for the enemies of the Montefeltro, the Malatesta). Every architecture hides optical deceptions, secret passages, ancestral telephones hidden in the spiral coils of the stairs.
The whole territory is dotted with fortresses (Cagli, Montecerignone, Sassocorvaro, Piobbico, Piandimeleto), masterpieces by the military architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini and signs of a land that for a large part of its history has been a “mark” of defense.
The light of the Montefeltro, the rows of hills that are lost to the eye, the game of empty and full that is rebalanced at every glance are the sign of a very long history, immortalized by the paintings of Raphael, Piero della Francesca, Lorenzo Lotto.
Infinite are the abbeys, suspended monasteries, the Inquisition courts to signal the definitive legacy of the power of the Duchy in the hands of the State of the Church. The art of the spirit. Which is another story, but not without similar quirks and surprises.