The Town Hall and the Lapidarium
Roman Treasures in the Center of Osimo
The Town Hall of Osimo is an important monumental complex formed by the union of different structures over time.
The building features an elegant three-tiered facade with decorated single-light windows, a central portal enriched with architectural elements, and the Civic Tower on the east side. The Tower, dating back to the thirteenth century, was purchased by the municipality in 1366 and subsequently modified between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries with its elevation and the addition of a clock and battlements.
Inside, there is an atrium with a collection of cannons from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and a Lapidarium with Roman, medieval, and Renaissance artifacts.
In the atrium of Osimo's Town Hall is housed the Lapidarium, a fine collection of archaeological finds that narrates the greatness of ancient Auximum. This space serves as a treasure chest for some of the most significant testimonies of the Roman era discovered in the city, offering visitors an immediate and evocative encounter with history. The collection includes statues, inscriptions, and architectural fragments that, together, compose a fresco of the public and private life of the flourishing Roman colony.
The undisputed protagonists of the Lapidarium are the so-called "acephalous statues," a series of life-sized sculptures without heads. It is believed they represented emperors or prominent figures in local politics, whose heads were replaced as power changed hands or chiseled away following condemnations (damnatio memoriae). Although mutilated, these imposing marble figures eloquently testify to the luxury, prestige, and political alignment of Auximum's most influential families with Rome's central power.
The highlight of the collection is undoubtedly the fragment bearing the oldest inscription found to date with the name of Pompey the Great (52 BC), the famous triumvir who began his political and military career precisely in Auximum, the ancient Latin name of Osimo.
Alongside these imposing sculptures, the Lapidarium preserves numerous inscriptions that shed light on various aspects of daily life: funerary epigraphs telling family stories, dedications to deities revealing the religious sphere, and decrees testifying to administrative organization. Each fragment is a precious document that allows us to reconstruct the history of a city that was a nerve center of Romanity.
Entering inside the hall of Town Hall, you will have an important meeting with the history. Here there are 12 Roman statues, all without head, that they could tell us the vicissitudes of the whole city.
