Urbania, once known as Castel Durante, had its first theatre as early as the 16th century, when it was reconverted from a ducal storehouse for straw: then, in 1726, the building was entirely renovated by the Accademia degli Acerbi that entrusted the project to the architect and scenographer Pietro Abati from Parma.
Actually, the present theatre, inaugurated in 1864, is the work of Ercole Salmi from Urbino, who was also the designer of the theatre of Gubbio (1868). The building was designed to replace the old theatre as early as 1857 and occupies the area where the ancient Brancaleone Fortress once stood. Completely made of bricks, the theatre has a façade in neoclassical style which is decorated, in its central part, with two tiers of semi-columns (in Doric style on the ground floor and in Ionic style on the upper floor) between which plain doors and windows without any ornamentation are integrated.
The interior of the theatre has a traditional style with the typical horse-shoe layout and 44 daises, spread over three tiers with an open gallery on the top. The proscenium, without any dais, has two supporting pilasters at both of its sides, which end with brackets supporting a horizontal architrave.