Civitas Village
Civitas Village refers to the open-air archaeological zone of ancient Falerii Veteres, the principal urban centre of the Falisci people, situated on a tufa plateau above the ravines of the Treia River near present-day Civita Castellana in Viterbo province, Lazio. The site preserves the street grid, temple podiums, and domestic foundations of a city that was forcibly abandoned by Rome in 241 BC when its population was relocated to the new settlement of Falerii Novi. Walking the plateau today means tracing the outline of a vanished Italic city whose walls, cut directly into the living rock, still partially stand.
At a glance
- Type
- Open-air archaeological area
- Period
- Iron Age through 241 BC; site abandoned after Roman conquest
- Style
- Faliscan urban layout; Italic tufa-block fortifications
- Location
- Civita Castellana, Province of Viterbo, Lazio, Italy
- Coordinates
- 42.6277° N, 12.1138° E
Overview
Falerii Veteres was the heart of the Ager Faliscus, a territory in southern Etruria where the Falisci maintained a distinctive culture and a Latin-related language distinct from their Etruscan neighbours. The city commanded a naturally defensible position on a tufa spur, with deep gorges on three sides reducing the need for artificial fortification. At its peak before 241 BC, Falerii Veteres supported a population estimated in the tens of thousands and produced notable terracotta art and painted ceramics now displayed in Italian and European museum collections.
History
The Falisci appear in historical records by the 7th century BC as an organised community with close ties to nearby Etruscan cities and to Rome itself. Roman military pressure mounted through the 4th century BC, but the decisive rupture came in 241 BC when Rome besieged Falerii and, upon its surrender, ordered the entire population relocated to the flatlands of Falerii Novi — a punishment designed to break Faliscan identity. The old city was stripped of its inhabitants but never systematically demolished; buildings gradually collapsed over centuries, leaving the plateau to rural use until modern archaeology began.
What you see
Visible remains on the plateau include segments of the Faliscan city wall built from large squared tufa blocks, the foundations of at least two major temples, and traces of the orthogonal street grid. Carved rock-cut roads lead down from the plateau into the ravines, still passable on foot. Votive deposits unearthed at the temple sites yielded the terracotta and bronze objects now housed in the nearby Museo dell’Agro Falisco in the Rocca dei Borgia. The surrounding landscape of tufa ravines and hazel woodland gives the site a dramatic natural setting.
Cultural significance
Falerii Veteres represents one of the best-preserved examples of a deliberately abandoned Italic city, offering archaeologists a rare urban snapshot frozen at the moment of Roman intervention. Its study has been central to understanding the diversity of pre-Roman central Italy and the processes by which Rome absorbed and transformed non-Latin Italic communities during the Middle Republic.
Practical information
- Address
- Plateau above Civita Castellana, Province of Viterbo, Lazio (access via local roads from the town centre)
- Hours
- Open-air area; check with local tourism office or the Museo dell’Agro Falisco for guided-visit arrangements
- Admission
- Check official website for current arrangements
Getting there
Civita Castellana is about 60 km north of Rome. By rail, take a Ferrovia Roma Nord regional train to Civita Castellana–Magliano station. By car, drive north via the Via Flaminia (SS3) and follow signs for Civita Castellana centro; local roads lead to the plateau. The Rocca dei Borgia museum in the town centre is the best starting point for orientation and maps.