Palazzo Roveresco of Montebello

Palace dating back to the year 1000. Between 1609 and 1632 it was the residence of Lavinia Feltria Della Rovere. Its rooms are decorated with fine stucco by Federico Brandani.

In the small village of Montebello, surrounded by medieval walls, there is a palace dating back to the year 1000, originally erected as a military fortification. Originally it was divided into three floors, with the warehouses in the highest part, demolished in the eighteenth century. The noble floor, which had eight rooms, plus the gallery and the little chapel, and the ground floor in which, besides the servants' room, there was the kitchen, the ovens and the laundry. In '300 it was a fief of the Sforza and from 1462 it was occupied by Federico da Montefeltro, count of Urbino. In '500 it belonged first to Cesare Borgia, then was annexed to the Duchy of Urbino. In the middle of the '500 Guidubaldo II Della Rovere assigned it as a feud to Count Antonio Stati, who was decapitated by the son of Guidubaldo II, Francesco Maria II Della Rovere. The walls and vaults were embellished with stucco decorations by Federico Brandani and with frescoes by Taddeo Zuccari. From 1609 to 1632, Lavinia Feltria Della Rovere stayed there, Marchesa del Vasto, sister of the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria II, daughter of Guidubaldo II and Vittoria Farnese. Lavinia was an educated, generous and kind noblewoman, a prominent figure in the culture of the Renaissance, who maintained a close correspondence with the courts of all Italy, and who made the Palazzo di Montebello a center of cultural irradiation, second only to the Ducal Palace of Urbino.