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Address

Address: Via Prenestina Nuova
Zone: Borghesiana (Roma est)
Km 2,500 (dietro distributore Tamoil)

Contacts

Information

Modalità di partecipazione: Booking required, Free admission

Description

Address: Via Prenestina Nuova km 2, between Ponte di Nona and Valle Martella.

The archaeological area of the ancient city of Gabii is located at about 20 kilometres from Rome, at the 12th mile of the ancient Via Prenestina, originally called Gabina, on the southern edge of the crater of Castiglione, an eccentric body of the Colli Albani complex occupied until the end of the 19th century, when it was drained, by a lake of volcanic origin known as 'lacus Buranus or Sanctae Praxedis' or as the lake of Castiglione.

The ancient centre of Gabii is part of the scenario of the great centres of Latium at the time of the birth of Rome and, together with Tibur and Praeneste, was one of the cities that controlled the lower Aniene valley and the accesses to the Sacco and Liri valleys. As such it constituted a political and cultural epicentre of fundamental importance in Latium vetus.

In such a context, the remains of the ancient city take on an importance of their own that derives from the sacredness of these places, which are closely linked to the Latin civilisation, within which the birth of Rome itself is located.

Gabii is also one of the most significant and important archaeological sites in the territory of the Municipality of Rome and a large sector of this area, including part of the ancient urban centre and some of its most direct appurtenances - about 70 hectares - was acquired by the State and assigned for use to the Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome in order to create a suburban archaeological park.

Due to its characteristics, the Gabii site today represents an extraordinary research context. Excavations carried out in the past have shown that the main structures and buildings of the ancient city are still largely preserved beneath the ground. In fact, after the site was abandoned in the mid-11th century, the area - used for agricultural purposes - was no longer subject to construction and transformation, which in other areas have irremediably erased the traces of past occupation. Therefore, the planning of a targeted survey programme may allow the acquisition of new information on the urban history of the Roman age, with certain repercussions also on the knowledge of the settlement history of Rome itself (the urban history of Gabii, at least until the middle republican age, seems to follow that of the Urbs).

 

 


 

 

Last checked: 2023-02-21 15:55