The long city walls of Ostra, protected by nine towers, date back to the Middle Ages and guard the ancient core of the city. The village is embellished by a network of characteristic alleys that create charming corners or open up in lovely squares.
The heart of the town is the suggestive Piazza dei Martiri, an elegant space that in summer becomes an evocative open-air stage for cultural events, theatre shows and especially musical events. Ostra is surrounded by beautiful hills, which are an ideal destination for walking, mountain biking and horseback riding activities.
Ostra is known as the “City of Music”.
Music play a major role in the local community and is one of the most attractive elements for tourists. Over the centuries, music has established itself as a shared passion that merges generations and musical genres.
From the 17th-century by Vincenzo De’ Grandis, maestro di cappella and composer in the Italian and European courts, up to the present day, music marks the time in Ostra.
A long tradition links Ostra to classical and opera music and L’Opera in piazza has become an unmissable appointment of the summer events program.
The ancient structure of the theater of Ostra is embedded in the right wing of Palazzo Comunale and dates back to 1863.
The stage was built rigorously in fir wood according to the dictates of acoustics by Senigallia-born Cortesi, while his other fellow citizen Vincenzo Nini lived for six consecutive months inside the theater.
He developed a stage machinery composed of seven wooden wheels that could be operated from the ceiling.
The complex and fascinating machinery is still working and can be visited.
The Civic Tower of Ostra was built in the first half of the 16th-century and was damaged during the Second World War by a bomb that in 1943 destroyed the nearby church of San Giovanni.
It was rebuilt and consolidated in 1950, enlarging its base and increasing its height to the current 33 meters. The tower hosts the ancient mechanisms of the clock and the bell from the 17th-century.
A journey through the history of popular devotion admiring the votive tablets preserved in the Sanctuary of Madonna della Rosa in Ostra.
An experience not to be missed is a visit to the Sanctuary of Madonna della Rosa in Ostra to admire the collection of votive tablets that are preserved there. They are a testimony of authentic popular devotion in a very intense and suggestive artistic form.
The 120 painted votive tablets were often commissioned by people of humble conditions who, faced with an escaped danger, wanted to thank the Virgin or the saint for the grace received.
The most peculiar ones are related to ambushes or aggressions. In one tablet the story is centered on a night shooting: an ambush is consumed in the moonlight in the main street of Ostra with the buildings in the background.
The rifle shot comes from the shadow and is avoided by the local gentleman.
