VULCI (Montalto di Castro)

A vast calcareous platform of about 100 hectares stretched out on one side of the river Fiora hosts the remains of Vulci, one of the great state-cities of Etruria. It was first mentioned in the ancient resources of Fasti Capitolini, where in 280 B.C; there is a description of the victory of Tito Coruncanio over the Vulcenti and Volsiniesi. As early as the IX-VIII cent. B.C. there is a strong villanovian culture, but it is only towards the end of the VII and VI cent. B.C. that a strong political city was formed that extended its control over a vast area, from the Tyrrhenian coast as far as the western side of Lake Bolsena. Even though it is 12 km away from the sea it had a strong seafaring and commercial link with Greece and the Far East as the rich funeral equipment on display in museums today all over the world show. Its prosperous agriculture produced oil, wine and cereals which were exported with their bronze pieces throughout the mediterranean and Europe. While jewellers, local ceramists and sculptors opened up to outside cultural influxes, re-elaborating them in an active and personal way.
Just as important was their political activeness that started to undermine the predominance of the Tarquini over Rome with Servio Tullio (Macstarna) whose saga is linked to the culventi brothers Vibenna and is depicted in the frescos of the tomb of François (IV cent. B.C.) in the necropolis of Ponte Rotto. The decline of vulci began in the III cent. B.C. due to Roman penetration. When defeated it was deprived of a large part of its land and its access to the sea. It survived during the imperial period, but in the VIII cent. B.C. it was abandoned leaving only numerous archeological remains as a reminder of its existence.
In the urban area, where new excavations and research are being carried out, Etruscan remains are often confused with Roman ones. Where natural defence was lacking, a strong wall of regular tuff blocks was situated in more than one place (IV cent. B.C.). Well preserved is the podium of an Etruscan temple in tuff blocks (V cent. B.C.), an elegant domus, late-republican, with its numerous and classical surroundings along the perimeter of which was built a Mitreo, the remains of a chapel dedicated to Hercules whose ex-voto are kept in the local museum and other buildings along the pavements of the roman road which starts at the Fiora and ends at the east/west axis of the Etruscan city.
The most suggestive monument in the whole area is the great bridge known as "The Rainbow" (I cent. B.C.) that goes over the Fiora (30 m high) near the medieval castle of the Badia (XIII cent. B.C.). Surrounding the city, in a complete circumference, are the vast necropoli (Cavalupo, Ponte Rotto, Polledrara, Osteria, Campo di Maggio Camposcala) with thousands of tombs (IX-I cent. B.C.) that are different forms and types: ditches, mounds, chamber tombs, corridors of tombs. At Ponte Rotto we find the great grave of Cuccumella (18m high and 65 in diameter), the Cuccumellata and the Rotonda, and not far away is the well remembered tomb of François, that of the Tori, of the Inscriptions and of the Two Entrances. Near the hamlet of Osteria there are various chamber tombs with sculptured ceilings imitating the wooden structure of an Etruscan home.
Particularly interesting is the archological museum at Castel dell’Abbadia with pieces that date from the year 2500 to the first century B.C., pieces belonging to the tomb of Panatenaica, Etruscan and Greek ceramics, bronze objects, sarcophaguses, ex-voto and architectural elements belonging to temples and tombs.