Area archeologica di Amiternum (San Vittorino)

Amiternum was an important Sabine centre that became a Roman town with a theatre, amphitheatre and regular street grid. Its principal monuments at San Vittorino, north of L'Aquila, preserve layers of settlement from pre-Roman times through the medieval period.

Why it matters

The Ministry of Culture records Neolithic presence in the area from around 5000 BC and Iron Age hilltop villages associated with the Sabines. A major Sabine settlement is believed to lie beneath modern San Vittorino, sometimes identified with ancient Testruna. Excavations near the church uncovered seventh-century BC tombs and pottery bearing a rare Paleo-Sabellian inscription.

After the Roman conquest, consolidated around 290 BC, the city grew along the Via Caecilia with a forum, temples, baths and houses, and administered a wide territory as a praefectura. The theatre was built in the second half of the first century BC; the amphitheatre followed later in the century.

What to notice

The theatre's seating banks against the hillside, and parts of the stage building survive. Finds from the excavations include a statue of Hercules and marble theatrical masks. In the early Imperial period a large pool, the natatio, was added; it served into the fourth century and later became a medieval necropolis and stone quarry.

The brick amphitheatre preserves the arena, ring gallery and pillars that once carried the outer corridor. Repairs on its northern side show that the structure required consolidation in antiquity. Nearby, the domus a peristilio preserves mosaics and traces of painted plaster, and a stretch of the Via Caecilia also survives.

Context and history

After the Roman town declined, houses and cemeteries occupied parts of the monuments from the fifth century. Settlement shifted toward the church of Santa Maria in Campo and continued until around the fifteenth century, by which time L'Aquila had long been the regional centre. Excavations at Campo Santa Maria have revealed two imperial-era domus, early Christian baptisteries and a Lombard cathedral, with occupation continuing into the Swabian period. The archaeological park took shape in the 1970s. In 2024, management passed to the Museo Nazionale d'Abruzzo by ministerial decree.