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TUSCANIA
Tuscania is one of the loveliest towns in Upper Latium. Built on a hilltop by the Etruscans in the 7th century BC, the town was situated in the river Marta valley, about 10 miles from Viterbo. Thanks to trade and farming, Tuscania soon became one of the richest centres in southern Etruria. After the Roman conquest, a new road was built, the Clodia way, leading from Rome to Tuscany via Tuscania. Many Christian pilgrims reused the Clodia in the early Middle Ages. In fact, a new town was built on St. Peter’s hill after the fall of the Roman Empire, and two little churches dedicated to St. Peter’s and Santa Maria Maggiore were erected between the 7th and the 8th centuries AD. These two sacred buildings were completely rebuilt by skilled stonemasons between the 11th and the early 13th centuries. Now the two basilicas are wonderful examples of mediaeval churches in the Romanesque Lombard style. Not far from the nice old centre of Tuscania there is also a fine Etruscan museum. Housed inside the ex Franciscan convent of Santa Maria del Riposo, it shows a collection of Etruscan objects and sarcophagi dating from between the 7th and the 2nd centuries BC. All around the town there are several cliff-type necropolises. Among them is the Tomba della Regina (Madonna dell’Olivo necropolis), a mound grave with several rock-cut underground passages.
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MEDIEVAL
