Blera (VT), a small village of just three thousand inhabitants, perched on a high tufaceous spur, where the green of nature blends with the history of the ancient Etruscan people and ancient Christian rituals.
Blera is not a place like any other, at least as regards the wealth of historical memories, and if there are many reasons to invite you to meet it, the sum of these stimuli can be condensed into a single emotional appeal: come and immerse yourself in the subsoil.
Among the various possible "dives" we will guide you in the descent of the Rio Canale Valley, between the city of the living and the city of the dead, almost a descent into the underworld that forces you to cross the purification plant (a purgatory?) But what however it leads to one of the few archaeological areas accessible to all and easy to access: Penta Caves.
In this short itinerary, however, it is possible to understand the "urban" concept that governed the formation of the Etruscan city of the deceased: monumental cubic tombs - the famous "cube" tombs - occupy the natural inclined plane of the tufaceous cliff, arranging on parallel overlapping orders , connected by steps and decorated with precious moldings.
At the Martarello fountain, we will then meet a rare circular mound cut into the cliff and just further on, on a scenic hillside platform, the complex of Grotte Penta stands out in which, for its good state of conservation, a cube tomb with lateral steps and top decorated with a high sequence of molded cornices.
In the immediate vicinity there are two tombs with plastered and painted rooms, similar in structure and decoration to the Tarquinian tombs of the fourth century. to. C.
Inside one of them, two Etruscan inscriptions, badly legible, let us know the names of the deceased and arouse in us those conflicting feelings of respect, fear and curiosity that the darkness of the tomb favors and that the sunlight dissolves.
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Etruscan Necropolis of San Giovenale
Address: Strada Provinciale 42, 01010
Phone: 3395718135
Site:
http://www.etruschi.name/blera/index.htmlLocation inserted by
Sabrina Moscatelli