Rimini

Rimini, town, Emilia-Romagna regione, northern Italy. The town is located along the Riviera del Sole of the Adriatic Sea at the mouth of the Marecchia River, just northeast of Mount Titano and the Republic of San Marino.

The Romans called it Ariminum, from Ariminus, the old name of the Marecchia, and, according to the 1st-century-bce Greek historian Strabo, it originally belonged to the Umbro-Etruscan civilization. The site was occupied in 268 bce by the Romans, and a Latin colony was established there on the boundary of Aemilia and Umbria. As the junction of the great Roman roads the Via Aemilia and the Via Flaminia, it became a Roman municipium (community) and was later sacked by the dictator Sulla. In 359 ce the town was host to the Council of Rimini, which failed to resolve the Arian controversy over the divinity of Christ. Rimini passed to the Byzantines and from them to the Goths, from whom it was recaptured by the Byzantine general Narses, and then to the Lombards and Franks.

The town was long an object of papal-imperial rivalry, particularly after it became an independent commune in the 12th century. The Guelf (papal) leader Malatesta da Verucchio was made podestà (“mayor”) in 1239, but internal strife prevailed until members of the Malatesta family were recognized as lords of the town in 1334. It was in this period that Gianciotto (Malatesta) the Lame killed his wife Francesca da Polenta and his brother Paolo, her secret lover; the tragedy was immortalized in Dante’s Inferno and in Silvio Pellico’s Francesca da Rimini.

The most renowned of the Malatesta lords was Sigismondo Pandolfo (1417–68), a soldier and arts patron who was responsible for Rimini’s 15th-century fortifications and for its best-known monument, the Malatesta Temple, designed to glorify his love for Isotta degli Atti. Sigismondo was accused of having killed his first and second wives in order to marry Isotta. This suspicion and his quarrels with other rulers and with the papacy led to Pope Pius II’s indictment of him in 1461. Sigismondo was compelled to submit and yielded most of his territory to the pope, keeping only Rimini and a few lands. He was succeeded by his illegitimate son Roberto, who got rid of the legitimate heirs and later was reconciled with the pope, becoming the commander of the papal army. Roberto’s son Sigismondo failed to defend his lands against Cesare Borgia, and Rimini passed to the Papal States in 1509. Except for brief French domination during the Napoleonic Wars, the city remained under papal control until it was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1860.

In the 19th century Rimini expanded beyond its walls and became a beach resort, a development accelerated by the establishment of seaside suburbs south of the city after 1920. Despite heavy damage from Allied bombardment in World War II, the city recovered. Its coastal resorts stretch for nearly 10 miles (16 km) between Torre Pedrera and Miramare.

Roman remains in Rimini include the Arch of Augustus, erected in 27 bce and completed in 22 ce by the emperor Tiberius; the bridge built by Augustus over the river and also completed by Tiberius (21 ce); and the ruins of a Roman amphitheater. The Malatesta Temple, which was converted from the old Gothic Church of San Francesco and designed by Leon Battista Alberti, is decorated with exquisite reliefs of a frankly pagan character and with the intertwined initials S and I (for Sigismondo and Isotta). Only ruins remain of the castle (1446) and town walls that were built by Sigismondo Pandolfo. Other noteworthy buildings include the restored Palazzo dell’Arengo (1204), the picture gallery, the civic library, and several medieval and Renaissance churches.

Rimini is a road center and important railway junction of lines to Brindisi, Venice and Trieste, and Bologna and Turin. The town has sea links with Ancona, Ravenna, Venice, and Trieste, and there is an airport at Miramare. The hinterland produces cereals and fruit, and the town has processing factories and railway repair shops. The main source of income, however, is tourism. The gently sloping beaches backed by promenades and hotels attract tourists, as do Rimini’s international shows, sporting events, and concerts. Pop. (2006 est.) mun., 135,682.