# Marche: two World Heritage sites, three UNESCO tags > Marche holds two World Heritage properties in 2026, Urbino from 1998 and the theatres added in 2026. Fabriano carries a different UNESCO label. URL: https://myitalia.it/unesco/in-marche Last updated: 2026-09-03 Marche holds two World Heritage properties in 2026, Urbino from 1998 and the central Italian theatres added in 2026, and a third UNESCO label in the region belongs to a different list entirely. ## Two properties, one of them brand new Urbino's historic center, reference 828, was inscribed in 1998. The second entry, reference 1762, is the system of Italian style condominium theatres of central Italy from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, inscribed in 2026 and shared with Umbria and Emilia-Romagna. That second inscription is the newest thing on any Italian regional list, and it is serial: the same property is counted in three regions at once. So the count of two is one old city and one share in a network of theaters, which is a very different pair from what a visitor might guess. ## Urbino: 29.23 hectares of core zone The Urbino inscription of 1998 runs under criteria ii and iv, with a core zone of just 29.23 hectares and a buffer zone of 3,608.5 hectares. What is protected is the entire city inside its Renaissance walls. That distinction is easy to miss and it changes how you use the day. Palazzo Ducale, the cathedral and the monastic complexes are components inside a listed town, not the reason the town is listed. A core zone under thirty hectares is small enough to walk end to end. The buffer zone is more than a hundred times larger, because the hills around Urbino are part of what makes the town legible. ## Fabriano is on the other UNESCO list Fabriano entered the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2013, in the Crafts and Folk Art category, for its craft tradition and above all for handmade paper. That network is a separate instrument from the World Heritage List and does not add to a region's site count. The Paper and Watermark Museum, in the former convent of San Domenico at Largo Fratelli Spacca 2, opens Tuesday to Sunday 9:30 am to 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, closed Monday, with daily opening in August (2026). A guided visit is included in the entry. The ticket price is missing here for a concrete reason: the museum's own pages for hours and tickets both return 404, so no figure could be read at source. ## Frasassi is not on any of them The Frasassi caves carry no UNESCO listing, and their scale makes the omission surprising. The Abisso Ancona, the first chamber, measures about 180 by 120 meters with a height of 200 meters and holds over 2 million cubic meters. It was reached on September 25, 1971 by the Marche speleological group of the CAI in Ancona, and the caves opened to the public on September 1, 1974. Inscription follows nomination, not size, and no Frasassi file has succeeded. Treat the caves as one of the best things to do in the region and not as a heritage label. More in [Marche](/regions/marche), [the Frasassi caves](/attractions/grotte-di-frasassi) and [sites by region](/best/unesco-sites-by-region). ## FAQ ### How many UNESCO sites are in the Marche? Two World Heritage properties in 2026: the historic center of Urbino, inscribed in 1998, and the system of Italian style condominium theatres of central Italy, added in 2026 and shared with Umbria and Emilia-Romagna. ### Is the Urbino listing just the Palazzo Ducale? No, it is the whole walled town. The core zone is only 29.23 hectares, with a buffer zone of 3,608.5 hectares, inscribed in 1998 under criteria ii and iv. Palazzo Ducale, the cathedral and the monastic complexes are components of a listed city, not the listing itself. ### Is Fabriano a UNESCO site? It is on a different UNESCO list. Fabriano joined the Creative Cities Network in 2013 in the Crafts and Folk Art category, for its craft tradition and above all for handmade paper. The Creative Cities Network is not the World Heritage List. ### Are the Frasassi caves UNESCO listed? No. The Abisso Ancona, the first chamber, measures about 180 by 120 meters with a height of 200 meters and over 2 million cubic meters of volume, and it was reached on September 25, 1971. Size is not a criterion for inscription, and Frasassi has none. ### When is the Fabriano paper museum open? Tuesday to Sunday 9:30 am to 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, closed Monday, with daily opening in August (2026). The guided visit is included in the entry. The ticket price could not be retrieved: the pages for hours and tickets both return 404. ## Sources | Fact | Source | Confidence | Valid until | |---|---|---|---| | In Marche ricadono 2 siti UNESCO del Patrimonio Mondiale (2026) | [UNESCO World Heritage Centre](https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/it/); [Ministero della Cultura - Ufficio UNESCO](https://unesco.cultura.gov.it/projects/); [Wikidata (query SPARQL su P1435=Q9259, P17=Q38, P757, P131)](https://query.wikidata.org/sparql) | medium | 2027-08-31 | | Il centro storico di Urbino e' iscritto nella Lista del Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO dal 1998 con i criteri (ii) e (iv), con una core zone di appena 29,23 ettari e una buffer zone di 3.608,5 ettari: e' la citta' intera dentro le mura rinascimentali a essere tutelata, non il solo Palazzo Ducale. | [Ministero della Cultura - Ufficio UNESCO](https://unesco.cultura.gov.it/projects/centro-storico-di-urbino/) | medium | 2030-12-31 | | Fabriano (AN) e' entrata nella rete delle Citta' Creative UNESCO nel 2013, categoria Crafts and Folk Art, per la tradizione artigiana e in particolare per la carta fatta a mano. | [UNESCO](https://www.unesco.org/en/creative-cities/fabriano); [Comune di Fabriano](https://www.comune.fabriano.an.it/) | high | 2099-12-31 | | Il Museo della Carta e della Filigrana di Fabriano, nell'ex convento di San Domenico, apre da martedi' a domenica 9.30-13.30 e 15.00-18.00, chiuso il lunedi' (2026); la visita guidata e' compresa nell'ingresso. | [Fondazione Fedrigoni Fabriano](https://www.museodellacarta.com/) | medium | 2027-06-30 | | La prima sala delle Grotte di Frasassi, l'Abisso Ancona, misura circa 180 x 120 metri con 200 metri di altezza e supera i 2 milioni di metri cubi di volume; fu raggiunta il 25 settembre 1971. | [Wikipedia in italiano, voce che cita frasassi.com](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotte_di_Frasassi) | medium | 2099-12-31 | ## Image https://media.myitalia.it/media/region.marche.v2.1600.jpg Author: gaspa. License: CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sirolo-vista_conero.jpg ## Other languages - it: https://myitalia.it/it/unesco/in-marche.md - es: https://myitalia.it/es/unesco/in-marche.md - fr: https://myitalia.it/fr/unesco/in-marche.md - de: https://myitalia.it/de/unesco/in-marche.md