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A prosperous little town watched over by a solid citadel and a medieval borgo high on a ridge above the modern sprawl. Follow the museum signs to wind up to the top, park and stroll through the hushed cobbled streets, past a fine gothic franciscan church to arrive at intimate Piazza Matteotti with its elegant arcades.
The town was also the birthplace of the classical baroque painter Giovan Battista Salvi (1609–1685),
better known as "Il Sassoferrato". His numerous devotional paintings, particularly of the Madonna, were popular in the Victorian age but are, perhaps, not to
modern tastes. You can see a couple of his works in the civic art collection in Palazzo Oliva.
The palace with the double ramp staircase, Palazzo dei Priori, houses the best finds from Roman city of Sentinum
which lay just to the south of the present town (ask at the nearby biblioteca comunale to see the Museo Archeologico). The scavi archeologici (ruins of Sentinum)
just south of town are perhaps more for the expert and somewhat difficult to find.
It was here that the Roman army defeated the combined Samnite and Gaul forces in 295 BC.
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