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Rimini[rE´mEnE] Pronunciation Key, anc. Ariminum, city (1991 pop. 127,960), in Emilia-Romagna, N central Italy, on the Adriatic Sea. It is a highly diversified industrial, commercial, and railroad center and a fashionable beach resort. Tourism is extremely important. Located at the junction of the Flaminian and Aemilian Ways, the city was a Roman colony of strategic importance (founded in the mid-3d cent. B.C.). It later came under Byzantine rule and was a member of the Italian Pentapolis. Rimini was included in Pepin the Short's donation to the popes (754). The Malatesta family seized power in Rimini in the 13th cent. and later conquered neighboring cities. Francesca da Rimini married (13th cent.) a Malatesta. In 1509 the city passed under papal control. The Tempio Malatestiano, a 13th-century church that Sigismondo Malatesta had renovated (c.1450) by Alberti to honor his wife Isotta, is a fine Renaissance-style building. Of note also are the Arch of Augustus (27 B.C.) and the Bridge of Tiberius (completed in A.D. 21).
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