It took me nearly 8 years, but I
finally got to Sutri. I first drove through this enigmatic Etruscan town in
2005, en route to Rome from an archaeological dig near Ravenna. My friend and I
had opted to take the back roads, both for the scenery and in order to avoid
the autostrada, which I wasn’t feeling brave enough to tackle. (Note: I
conquered that fear on my next trip to Italy.) We gaped in awe when we saw Sutri’s
rock-cut tombs just a few yards from the Cassia, or provincial road, but alas,
we had no time to stop.
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| Aren't those tombs enticing? |
The second time I saw Sutri was also
in a car, this time traveling north from Rome. We had live fish in the car for
Paolo’s aquarium so again, no time to stop.
Then when my niece announced she was
coming to visit and hinted that she’d like to “see some cool archaeological
site or something,” I decided Sutri would be it.
Except the February day we set out to
make the 2 hour drive from Allerona, past Orvieto and south past Viterbo to get
to Sutri, the weather was not cooperating. I knew that Paolo, who toils as a
muratore (stonemason) all week long, would have been perfectly happy staying
home and watching an endless loop of soccer matches all day long. But I was
determined we were going to see “some cool archaeological site or something,”
damn it, and I insisted we hit the road.
A short time after we passed Orvieto
on the Cassia, which more or less
follows the ancient Roman road built by Cassius Longuius in 107 BCE, which followed an even more ancient Etruscan
road, the snow started. The car shimmied along the road as the snow piled up in
neighboring fields. “We should go home,” said Paolo. “Or go the archaeological
museum in Orvieto.”
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| Niche tomb, with traces of plaster & paint |
“We’re
almost there!” I implored. “Plus I’ve waited 5 years to see Sutri.” (Math never
being my strong suit, I only realized when I sat down to write that it had
actually been 8 years.) He grumbled, predicted that we would be rained or
snowed out, and kept driving.
It
was nearly 1 pm when we arrived, hungry, at the town of Sutri. We ducked into a
bar close to the archaeological site, and grabbed a few panini. “The park
closes at 2 pm,” the bar owner admonished. “Hurry up or you won’t see the
church.” Not another church, I
thought. Italians and their churches. Geez.
As
it turns out, this wasn’t just any old church.
The
“modern”—and that’s a relative term in Italy—town of Sutri sits on a tufa, or
volcanic stone bluff above the ruins of ancient Sutri, or Sutrium, as it was
known to the Romans. Sutri was an Etruscan town associated with Veii, the first
of the so-called Etruscan cities to fall to the Romans. Its history dates back
until at least the 7th century BCE. After the Romans conquered Veii
in 396 BCE, Sutri became Romanized, though it would still take a century or so
of conflict before it was securely in the hands of the Romans. In the ensuing centuries,
Sutri has been a retirement home for Roman legionnaires, a hangout for
Charlemagne, a vacation home of stressed-out popes, and an important way-station
along the Via Francigena, the pilgrims’ route from Canterbury to Rome.
The
result today is an archaeological site that spans several centuries and cultures.
Most notable, and the feature that caught my eye lo those many years ago, is
the extensive Etruscan necropolis, or cemetery, carved into the tufa cliffside.
The tombs are closed off by a not very imposing wooden fence. We asked the
guide if we could look in any of them and her reply was, “Well, there’s a risk
of trees and boulders falling off the cliff” (and landing on top of curious
tourists) “but you can go in if you want.” So falling rocks be damned, in we
went.
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| Roman amphitheater carved from solid rock |
Though
the individual tombs have been raided, gutted, enlarged and combined over the
years, to use as animal stables or magazzinos
(storage buildings), their mystery and appeal is still very much present. Some
are slab tombs, where the deceased was laid directly on the stone bed, and
others are niche tombs, where cinerary urns containing the ashes of the dead
were placed into holes cut into the tombs walls. A few of the tombs still have
plastered walls, and in some, slight traces of fresco are visible.
Adjacent
to the necropolis is a Roman amphitheater thought to date from the 1st
century CE and quite possibly built upon an earlier Etruscan form. But this isn’t
an amphitheater built from the ground up—rather, it’s built from the ground
down. The rock cut amphitheater is carved out of a single giant slab of tufa,
sort of a giant punchbowl scooped out in a long, laborious process that was no
doubt carried out by slaves.
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| More of the amphitheatre |
But
the real surprise of Sutri is that church the barkeep told us about as I
rolled my jaded eyes. It can only be seen with a guide, who led us to the end
of the necropolis and unlocked a door set into the rock face. Inside are some of the most stunning frescoes I’ve
ever seen.
The church of Santa Maria Del Parto is contained entirely inside the
tufa bluff, where the moisture and constant cool temperatures have kept the
vividly colored frescoes, which date to the 13th-15th centuries,
stunningly intact. The church is built into a tomb structure, which in turn was
built in what used to be a mithraeum dating at least to Etruscan times. A mithraeum
was a place of worship to the bull god Mithras, and if Santa Maria del Parto
was indeed a mithraeum, many a bull was sacrificed inside. The site of the
altar to Mithras is now the altar of the church.
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| There's a church inside that hunk of rock |
It’s easy to toss around words like breathtaking, stunning and fascinating when
one is writing about travel or archaeology. But truly, they all apply to Santa
Maria del Parto. Even Paolo said to me quietly, as we gazed at the vibrant
frescoes just a nose-length from us whispered to me, “This was worth the drive.”
Fortune smiled upon us that day in
Sutri, and the skies cleared long enough for us to enjoy our visit without an
umbrella. (One nice thing about living in and writing from Italy, you can write
things like “fortune smiled upon us” without sounding like a pretentious
asshole. At least, I think you can.) And I’m happy to say that Sutri was well
worth the 8 year wait. But my recommendation is that if you’re ever on the
Cassia headed to or from Rome, don’t just drive by—take the time to explore
this extraordinarily “cool archaeological
site.”
Scroll down for more photos!
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| Interior of church, looking towards mithraeum photo by Suzie Dundas |
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| Mural, ca 13-15th C photo by Suzie Dundas |
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| Mural detail, photo by Suzie Dundas |
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| Even this cat got to Sutri before I did. photo by Suzie Dundas |
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| "Just park inside the tomb," the guide told us. This happens all the time in Italy. |
