Arch of Augustus

The Arco di Augusto in Fano is a three-bayed Roman triumphal arch erected around 9 AD where the Via Flaminia — ancient Rome's main road to the Adriatic — entered the city of Fanum Fortunae. Augustus had established the city as a veteran colony after Actium, and the arch's inscription, still partially legible, records the walls and towers he gifted to the new settlement. In the medieval period the arch was absorbed into the city fortifications; its central bay was destroyed in 1463 during a siege by Federico da Montefeltro, leaving the two outer arches intact. Passing through it today, visitors follow the exact alignment of the Via Flaminia that has defined the city's entrance for two thousand years.