The Etruscan painted tomb capital — Lazio's most extraordinary UNESCO site above a medieval cliff town
Tarquinia is a medieval hilltop town 90km northwest of Rome in Lazio, whose Etruscan necropolis (Monterozzi) is one of the most astonishing archaeological sites in Italy — a UNESCO World Heritage Site containing over 6,000 Etruscan tombs cut into the tufa rock, more than 200 of which are decorated with extraordinary painted frescoes (dancers, banquets, athletes, animals) representing the oldest colour paintings in the western Mediterranean. The medieval town above has a 12th-century Romanesque church (Santa Maria di Castello) and several Etruscan stone sarcophagi displayed in a 15th-century G…
Tarquinia was the most powerful city of the Etruscan Dodecapoly — an ancient confederation of twelve Etruscan cities — and the legendary home of the Tarquin dynasty, whose last king (Tarquinius Superbus) was expelled from Rome in 509 BCE, supposedly founding the Roman Republic. The painted tombs of the Monterozzi necropolis (6th–2nd century BCE) are the largest existing body of pre-Roman figurative painting in the world; their colours have been preserved for 2,500 years by the sealed tufa chambers. The UNESCO inscription (1004) covers both Cerveteri and Tarquinia as the two principal Etruscan…