SINIGAGLIA, or Senigallia (the official form), a city of Italy, in the province of Ancona, in 43° 43' 16" N. lat., on the coast of the Adriatic, 17 miles by rail north of Ancona. It is well built, with broad and well-paved streets, and has the general appearance of a thriving commercial town. A modern cathedral, erected subsequent to 1787, a large Jewish synagogue, a theatre, the communal buildings, and the old palace of the dukes of Urbino are the more notable buildings. The communal library was founded by Cardinal Nicola Antonelli in 1767; and the principal hospital and one of the orphanages date from 1534. The port is formed by the lower reaches of the Misa, a small stream which flows through the town between solid embankments constructed of Istrian marble. Between July 20 and August 8 Sinigaglia annually holds one of the largest fairs in Italy, which dates originally from 1200, when Sergius, count of Sinigaglia, received from the count of Marseilles, to whose daughter he was affianced, certain relics of Mary Magdalene. The fair has diminished in importance since the opening of the railway, but formerly it used to be visited by merchants from France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and especially the Levant. The population, exclusive of the suburbs, was 10,501 in 1861 and 6634 (commune 22,499) in 1881....
Sinigaglia is the ancient Sena (Σήvη) or (to distinguish it from Sena Julia, i.e., Siena) Sena Gallica, a town of the Galli Senones (Σήvωvες ), whose name appears as Senogallia as early as Pliny. Sena was made a Roman colony immediately after the conquest of the Senones in 289 b.c. It was the rendezvous of the consuls Livius and Nero before the battle of the Metaurus, also known as the battle of Sena, in which Hasdrubal was defeated (207 b.c. ). The sack of the town by Pompey, Sulla’s lieutenant, in 82 b.c., is the only other notable fact in its ancient annals. Ravaged by Alaric, fortified by the exarch Longinus, and again laid waste by the Lombards in the 8th century and by the Saracens in the 9th, Sinigaglia was at length brought so low by the Guelf and Ghibelline wars, and especially by the severities of Guido de Montefeltro, that it was chosen by Dante as the typical instance of a ruined city. In the 15th century it was captured and recaptured again and again by the Malatesta and their opponents. Sigismond Malatesta of Bimini erected strong fortifications round the town in 1450-1455. The lordship of Sinigaglia was bestowed by Pius I I. on his nephew Antonio Piccolomini, but the people of the town in 1464 placed themselves anew under Paul II., and Giacomo Piccolomini in 1472 failed in his attempt to seize the place. Sixtus VI. assigned the lordship to the Della Rovere family, from whom it was transferred to Lorenzo di Medici in 1516. After 1624 it formed part of the legation of Urbino.
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