Walled Cities & Open Societies: Managing Historic Walls in Urban World Heritage P roperties Siena, Italy. 26-27 January 2017

Urbino (Italy)

C i t y B a c k g r o u n d Information

The Historic Centre of Urbino was inscribed in 1998 in the UNESCO World Heritage List on the base of the following selection criteria established by the World Heritage Committee:

Criterion (ii) “To exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town planning or landscape design;

“During its short cultural pre-eminence, Urbino attracted some of the most outstanding humanist scholars and artists of the Renaissance, who created there an exceptional urban complex of remarkable homogeneity, the influence of which was carried far into the rest of Europe.”

Criterion (iv) to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history;

“Urbino represents a pinnacle of Renaissance art and architecture, harmoniously adapted to its physical Site and to its medieval precursor in an exceptional manner.”1

The UNESCO Site “Historic Centre of Urbino” coincides with the area defined by the Renaissance walls that are still integrally preserved. Inside the historic town, the Site includes a number of buildings of outstanding quality such as the Ducal Palace, the Cathedral, the Monastery of Saint Chiara and a complex system of “Oratori”.

The origins of the town date back to a Roman settlement located on the top of the hill where at present rises the Ducal Palace. The town was confined within these limits until the 11th century; at the end of that century Urbino began to grow and a new system of defensive walls was necessary. At mid 15th Federico di Montefeltro drastically renewed the town keeping almost unchanged its urban structure. The town delimited by the Renaissance walls expanded up to the second northern hill and acquired an elongated shape.

Urbino is a small hilly town that during the Renaissance reached a very high cultural level, became the destination of scholars and artists from Italy and other regions and was a reference for cultural development in Europe.

Some of the most important humanists of that time such as Leon Battista Alberti, Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Bessarione; mathematicians like Paul van Middelburg and prominent artists such as Luciano Laurana, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca and Antonio Barocci convened at the Court of Federico III di Montefeltro (1444-1482) to develop unique cultural and architectural projects. Raffaello, Donato Bramante and the mathematician Luca Pacioli were raised in this cultural climate.

1 The criteria for the inscription of the Historic Centre of Urbino are also available at the following links:: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/828 http://www.sitiunesco.it/urbino-il-centro-storico.html http://www.rivistasitiunesco.it/sito.php?id_sito=30

Walled Cities & Open Societies – Managing Historic Walls in Urban World Heritage Properties Siena, Italy. 26-27 January 2017 (page 2)

This criterion (ii) and (iv) concerns the symbolic values of Urbino’s architecture and urban system, expressed in different stages of its historical and artistic development. The richness of an urban context does not result from the juxtaposition of its single architectures but from their interrelation in space and time, according to relationships of co-existence.

The issue becomes more complex and sensitive when it isseen with reference to the size of the Historic Centre of Urbino surrounded by its walls.

In this case, each new architectural intervention must take into consideration the human scale in order not to alter a subtle balance of relationships. Any new architecture (when possible) before “to say” something should “listen”: i.e. recognize the spirit of the place and then interpret it with its own voice. New architectures should be grafts on existing matrices, and completions, removals, careful functional changes, minimal thoughtful interventions rich in meanings. The history of Urbino shows that a specific characteristic of the town is the ability to integrate and amalgamate architectures of a given historical period with the preceding ones, avoiding fractures and contrapositions.

COMUNE DI URBINO Ufficio UNESCO - Decoro Urbano – Igiene Urbana via Puccinotti n. 33 - tel. 0722 3091 - fax 0722 309457 web site http://www.comune.urbino.ps.it/ P.E.C. [email protected] facebbok: https://it-it.facebook.com/citta.diurbino/

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This document has been drafted by the City of Urbino. Authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this paper and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization.

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