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The ancient Etruscan city of Veio stood on a triangular-shaped plateau, joined on the side of the acropolis of Piazza d'Armi by two rivers, the Fosso della Mola and the Cremera, a tributary of the Tiber. Settlements consisting of huts were already present on the plateau in the Bronze Age and in the Villanovan era (early 9th century BC). Following the growing economic development, due to the control of the lower course of the Tiber and the exploitation of the salt pans on the right bank of the river, as evidenced by the discovery of imported Greek ceramics, which also document Veio's intense trade with Greek merchants, the city was transformed from a settlement of huts into an urban centre with walls made of tufa blocks and a mighty aggere (earthen ramparts with a moat in front) and with houses built in masonry (7th-6th century BC). The proximity to Rome (just 17 kilometres) led Veio to an inevitable clash for control of the territory, which ended with the final conquest of the city by FurioCamillo in 396 BC. The territory was then annexed to the Roman state, and organised with a series of small farms and rustic villas. After a period of abandonment, a colony was created under Caesar, which Augustus transformed into a municipality with imposing buildings.
However, the Vein territory was later abandoned, perhaps as early as the 2nd century AD, until the Middle Ages, when the village of Isola Farnese was established. There are numerous necropolises around the town, with tumulus and chamber tombs that have yielded important grave goods; among these are the Tomb of the Ducks, which is the oldest Etruscan tomb with wall paintings (second quarter 7th century BC) and the Campana Tomb (late 7th century BC), decorated with animals and plant motifs and with figures of knights accompanied by figures on foot or fantastic animals.
The sanctuary of Portonaccio is the most important sanctuary in the city, located outside the urban core and dedicated to the goddess Menerva. The discovery of the famous terracotta statue of Apollo on top of the roof of the temple (now in Villa Giulia) has led to the sanctuary being mistakenly attributed to Apollo.
The complex, enclosed by a boundary wall (temenos), consisted of a temple with an adjoining pool used for ceremonial purposes, and a square, where the votive offerings of the faithful were probably placed, with a large square platform in the centre of which was a square altar. The temple was either a three-cell or a single-cell temple with lateral colonnades, and had a rich terracotta decoration consisting of cladding slabs, antefixes with heads of Gorgons and maenads, and acroterial statues placed on the top of the roof, including that of Apollo. The decoration can be dated to the end of the 6th century BC, and is attributed to the workshop of Vulca, an Etruscan artist who also decorated the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on the Capitoline Hill at the time of Tarquinius the Proud (509 BC). The other important sanctuary in Veio is the one at Campetti, dedicated to the underworld god Veii, eponymous of the city, perhaps identified with Demeter.
Ponte Sodo: this is an approximately 70-metre-long tunnel, dug to facilitate the flow of the Cremera river during floods, with wells on its vault to draw water from above. Its dating is uncertain, between the Etruscan period (6th century B.C.) and the period after the Roman conquest.