Founded in 387 B.C. by the Syracuse Greeks, and therefore of Doric lineage, it was one of the northernmost cities of Greek colonization in the West and one of the most isolated compared to other Greek colonies. The Greeks founded the colony by strengthening a pre-existing Greek-Picene emporium, the emporium became a city of Greek language, culture and appearance, and remained so for three centuries, even when it entered the orbit of the Roman state and then became an integral part thereof.
Greek coin with the “elbow”. Ankon means “elbow”, which is the geographical nature of the area of Ancona.
Ankón, through its port, maintained close relations with the main centres of the eastern Mediterranean, as evidenced by archaeological evidence, especially for the Hellenistic age. It was part of the general policy of expansion of the Adriatic Sea in Syracuse during the 5th and 4th centuries BC.
In the Hellenistic period, the Anconitans’ shipping routes linked the city, in an intense and systematic way, with the main Greek centres of the eastern Mediterranean, such as Corfu, Delo, Rhodes, Byzantium and Alexandria of Egypt, as well as those of Magna Graecia, as Taranto and Heraclea.
Greek colonies in the Adriatic
Between the end of the II and the beginning of the I century B.C. it was gradually absorbed into the Roman state, while remaining for some decades a linguistic and cultural Greek island. One of the most important characteristics of this polis is indeed its persistent attachment to the Greek character and its cultural resistance to Romanization.
The port was strengthened by Trajan and is listed in the Trajan column, as a starting point of the Dacian expedition. Its strategic importance was significant during the Greco-Gothic War (535-553). Ancona remained a stronghold of the imperial domain for the whole war, while the nearby Osimo was disputed several times by the Goths and Imperials. In 551 was the last port of call in Italy left to the Imperials with Ravenna, Otranto and Crotone. For its control was fought the naval battle of Senigallia, between the Adriatic fleet of Totila and the imperial (551), the latter won providing an important point of support for the invasion of Narsete.
The early Middle Ages: between papacy and Byzantium
During the Lombard-Byzantine period it remained in imperial hands, forming with Rimini, Pesaro, Fano and Senigallia the so-called “Pentapolis” of Byzantium. Conquered by Liutprand in the eighth century, it was ceded to the papacy by Pippin after the defeat of the Lombards. The control of the nascent papal state was always very theoretical, however, while the Arabs attacked the city, plundering it in 839. At the birth of the Holy Roman Empire with Otto I – was established in March, with the Marquis as feudal lord of the Empire, something that irritated the papacy. This was followed by long struggles for control between the Papacy and the Empire, during which Ancona took advantage of the situation to establish itself as a de facto independent republic (11th century).
Independence was not developed, as in other cities, around the figure of the bishop, but thanks to the collaboration of citizens engaged in navigation and trade activities, who made a pact of solidarity and drew up an agreement with the imperial marquis.
The Republic of Ancona
Ancona was one of the Italian maritime republics during the late Middle Ages: its trade extended over a large part of the Mediterranean, with foundries in Dalmatia, the Aegean, the East and – above all – in Constantinople. In this, the city came into conflict with the great maritime power of the Adriatic – Venice – who allied with the Empire to end the independence of the Doric republic.
In 1173, as part of his policy of opposing the free Italian communes, Barbarossa sent his lieutenant, Archbishop Cristiano di Magonza to Ancona, to submit the Republic of Ancona to the Empire. The siege from land was aided by a Venetian fleet, to block the city even from the sea. The city managed to resist.
To counter the Venetian domination in the Adriatic was decisive above all the alliance with the Republic of Ragusa (from 1199), today Dubrovnik, in Croatia. The two cities gave life to a trade route between western Europe and the Middle East alternative to that of Venice; this route started from Constantinople, passing through Ragusa, Ancona and Florence. Florence and Lucca were the main destinations of the Anconetani trade.
From the 11th to the 16th century, the only period in which the city was not independent was between 1348 and 1383. In 1348 the Malatesta of Rimini managed to take over the city taking advantage of the extreme weakness in which the Republic was after the arrival of the Plague. The Malatesta were defeated by Cardinal Albornoz, with the task of restoring the papal authority in central Italy to facilitate the return of the Papacy from Avignon.
After the expulsion of the Malatesta, Albornoz entered the city and built a large fortress, a strategy similar to that employed by the cardinal in Spoleto, another key city for the control of central Italy. The fortress of Albornoz remained in place until 1383, when it was destroyed by the people, rebelling against the papacy, after a difficult siege. In addition to the Anconitans, large groups of soldiers from all over the Marches participated in the siege. The fortress finally gave up thanks to the excavation of a tunnel under its walls; it was then completely destroyed in the fury of the people, in order to restore the ancient city autonomy.
The loss of independence and decline
In 1532, following the fear of an Ottoman invasion, Pope Clement VII obtained from the Anconetani the authorization to build a large fortress to defend the city, designed by Sangallo the young man. The fortress was then used by the Pope to suppress the municipal independence of the city that – unlike most of the Italian cities – had not turned into a lordship (except for the brief rule of the Malatesta): the guns of the fortress were aimed at the city that was occupied by the papal troops.
The medieval archive of the Republic was burned in the square. The city was placed under the strict control of papal legates appointed by the Vatican.
The loss of independence led to a decline in trade, so much so that the port became secondary throughout the seventeenth century. In 1732, Pope Clement XII established a free port, with exemption of customs duties, so as to revitalize the port which was expanded by Luigi Vanvitelli.
In 1797 Napoleon occupied the city and shortly after it was proclaimed the Anconitana Republic, which in 1798 was annexed to the Roman Republic. After a series of events and sieges that saw it passed into the hands of the French and Austrians, it was annexed in 1808 to the Napoleonic Italian Kingdom, within the Department of Metauro.
The Risorgimento and the twentieth century
Returned to the Papal States after the defeat of Napoleon, he rebelled in 1849 against the papacy and joined the Roman Republic of Mazzini. Pope Pius IX asked the Austrians to intervene and recapture the city, which heroically resisted under the leadership of the commander of the papal garrison, who had rebelled against the papacy and joined the Anconetani patriots. The siege lasted 26 days, the city gave on 19 June 1849. For 10 years it was then occupied by the Austrians, under the theoretical papal authority.
The city was liberated by the Sardo-Piedmontese troops in 1860, who had defeated the Pontiffs in the battle of Castelfidardo, on 18 September of that year, while heading south to Teano and the troops of Garibaldi. The city, with the rest of the Marche, became part of the nascent Italian state after a plebiscite.
Since then, he has followed the affairs of the Kingdom and then of the Italian Republic. At the outbreak of World War I, on 24 May 1915, the Austrians bombed the city and caused several dozen deaths, partially destroying the shipyard and damaging the Cathedral.
It was the scene of more destructive Allied bombing after 1943, when the city was occupied by German forces: in 1944 there was a battle around Ancona, the city was liberated by the Polish Free Polish Army on 18 July 1944.