Cupra Marittima

Cupra Marittima, on the Riviera delle Palme in the province of Ascoli Piceno, is a rare example of a seaside town that preserves clearly distinct traces from the different periods of its history. The modern area stretches along the coast, the medieval village of Marano rises on the hill, while to the north of the present-day settlement lie the remains of the Roman city of Cupra Maritima.
Inhabited since the Paleolithic era, it was first an important Picene settlement and later a Roman colony, of which the Forum, the temple dedicated to the goddess Cupra, and a villa with baths and a nymphaeum still remain. The ancient fortified village of Marano still preserves its walls, the 12th-century towers, the noble palaces, the medieval churches, and the Archaeological Museum of the Territory. Along the coast, instead, stands the Piceno Malacological Museum, which houses nearly one million specimens and exhibits of primitive art connected to the world of shells.