Cupra Marittima is one of the most interesting town situated on this seaside also known as “Riviera delle palme” . His name recalls the ancient cult of the goddess Cupra, a divinity to which the inhabitants of this place were devoted. She is thought to be the goddess of beauty, love and fertility, and her myth inspired Doctor Nico Ciccarelli, born in this nice town, to name his notable beauty product line “Cera di Cupra”. He was the founder of the homonymous pharmaceutical industry that invented the first toothpaste “Pasta del Capitano”.
The town can be divided into two parts: the upper one, within the old village, the medieval centre of Marano, and the lower and most recent one, developed on the seaside.
In the old centre there are the archaeological town museum, with its prehistoric, picena and roman sections, the Brancadoro Sforza Palace (1444), the castle of Sant’Andrea, the medieval church Santa Maria in Castello, the churches del Suffragio e dell’Annunziata; the latter contains a permanent beautiful Christ’s nativity representation. On the way on the SS 16, near the petrol station ERG there is the “Villa romana” with thermal and squeezing ambients, mosaics and a nymphaeum, illustrating fish activities and sailors’life, dating back to the I century B.C. Still on the SS 16 street, behind the restaurant Villa Cellini, going up to the hill we find the Pieve San Basso, this is one of the most important testimony of the area, it dates back to the IX century B.C. and it is important because it symbolized the passage from the pagan dimension to the statement of the first Christian faith, San Basso. In fact the body of the patron saint of the town has been kept in the crypt for a very long time. Your journey through history can be concluded with the visit to the Foro Romano, the fulcrum of the archaeological park. Once you get northwards, walk straight on to the cross-roads that leads to Carassai, then go westwards and you find the foro.
Going back to the lower side of the town, from Marano, you can get the Collegiata San Basso, where you can admire the wonderful triptych of Vittore Crivelli and the painting of Giuseppe Pauri.
A visit not to be missed is in the museum of Malacology, whose exhibition contains over 900.000 specimens of shells from all over the world.