04 - Church of Sant’Agostino - Corso Undici Settembre

After leaving via dei Calzolari (via Branca) and the main square, Jackson heads along via del Corso towards Porta Ravignana, now Porta Rimini. If the first was the street of the artisans, the second is the most important street of commerce, with numerous small shops recognizable by their signs and awnings.

It is strange that in the map of Pesaro in which the commercial establishments dedicated to hospitality are shown - the inns, the bars - the Zongo hotel is not indicated, but the precise graphic summary allows us to recognize several of them: the Locanda della Corona, in via della Posta Vecchia (now via Mazza), the Caffè dell’Ausonia (perhaps in via Petrucci), the Locanda del Sole (perhaps in via Varese), the Caffè del Commercio (along the Corso), the Montatina del Nuovo Fiore which was called Montata delle Carceri.

The administrators are particularly committed to regulating these activities, as is demonstrated by the notifications signed by Cardinal Ferretti regarding the sanctions provided for traders who do not respect the rules useful for the safety of citizens; above all, attention is paid to gambling, which is banned from every commercial activity, thus demonstrating a problem that must be addressed. Even more interesting is the ban that regulates the life of every inhabitant: which invites you to clean the stretch of land in front of your home or not to obstruct the road with animals or your own objects.

But the map indicates the urban area as the location of an event that Jackson would certainly have liked a lot: the murder of a man. The 1867 map is attached to an expert report by engineer Fradelloni included in a trial file opened on the murder of the prefect Alessandro Ferro. The prefect was killed in the historic center while walking with his wife. A bloody event that had a lot of resonance in the city.

Passing in front of the church of Sant’Agostino, we cannot be sure that Jackson entered to observe the inlays of the choir: Pesaro is represented with views of the city of rare interest.

Despite the lively appearance of the Corso, even Carlo Cinelli in 1880 describes Pesaro as a city with a sad and monotonous appearance with many crumbling houses of the ‘Gothic era’ with “pointed arch windows and doors and walls and stones blackened by time” that “made a strange contrast with the more recent buildings in smooth reddish brick” grimly harmonized “with the pavement equally of large bricks on the coast. The large streets were tortuous and narrow, and the houses, generally irregular and almost all on one floor, had windows with only canvas shutters. Those small round and greenish glasses of the time were too luxurious and very few families could afford them.”

But Jackson’s destination is outside Pesaro.