Ancient Civitas Museum
The Ancient Civitas Museum — formally the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia satellite and the Museo dell’Agro Falisco — is housed inside the imposing 16th-century Rocca dei Borgia in Civita Castellana, Viterbo province, Lazio. It displays the pre-Roman and Roman heritage of the Ager Faliscus, the territory once controlled by the Falisci people, an Italic tribe closely related to the Latins. Collections span terracotta architectural friezes, votive deposits, painted ceramics, bronze objects, and funerary material excavated from the surrounding Falisco landscape.
At a glance
- Type
- State archaeological museum (Museo Nazionale)
- Period
- Collections: 9th century BC – 3rd century AD (Faliscan–Roman); building: 16th century AD (Rocca dei Borgia)
- Style
- Renaissance fortress (museum container); Faliscan and Roman antiquities (collections)
- Location
- Civita Castellana, Province of Viterbo, Lazio, Italy
- Coordinates
- 42.6281° N, 12.1147° E
Overview
Civita Castellana stands on a tufa plateau above deep ravines carved by the Treia River, occupying the site of Falerii Veteres, the principal city of the Falisci. The Falisci flourished from the Iron Age through the 3rd century BC, maintaining strong cultural links with Etruscan neighbours while preserving their own Latin-related language and distinctive pottery tradition. When Rome decisively defeated them in 241 BC, the population was forcibly relocated to Falerii Novi, and the old city was left largely abandoned — its ruins now forming the archaeological substrate explored by the museum.
History
Systematic excavation of the Ager Faliscus began in the 19th century, yielding spectacular votive deposits from temples dedicated to Juno Curitis and other Faliscan deities. The Rocca dei Borgia, originally built for Pope Alexander VI around 1500, was adapted as a museum in the early 20th century to house finds too numerous for Rome’s Villa Giulia. The museum collection grew steadily through the 20th century as legal and rescue excavations uncovered further terracotta decorations, painted pottery, and bronze votive objects from sites across the surrounding territory.
What you see
Visitors move through halls displaying monumental terracotta antefixes and revetment plaques from Faliscan temples, fine black-glaze and red-figure ceramics, and a rich array of votive bronzes including statuettes and miniature tools. Funerary assemblages illustrate burial customs from the Iron Age through the Romanisation period. The Renaissance courtyard of the Rocca provides a dramatic architectural setting, and some display rooms retain painted ceilings from the fortress’s papal phase.
Cultural significance
The Ager Faliscus collections are among the most important sources for understanding an Italic people who stood at the cultural crossroads between Etruscan and Latin civilisations. The museum safeguards irreplaceable evidence of a lost language — Faliscan inscriptions housed here are key documents for the study of early Italic linguistics — and of artistic traditions that shaped Roman decorative repertoires.
Practical information
- Address
- Rocca dei Borgia, Piazza Umberto I, 01033 Civita Castellana VT, Italy
- Hours
- Check official website or call ahead; closed Mondays (typical for Italian state museums)
- Admission
- Standard MiC tariff; free first Sunday of each month
Getting there
Civita Castellana is approximately 60 km north of Rome. By rail, take a regional train from Roma Ostiense or Roma Tiburtina to Civita Castellana–Magliano station (Ferrovia Roma Nord line), then a short walk or taxi to the Rocca. By car, take the Via Flaminia (SS3) northward and follow signs for Civita Castellana centro.