Basilica di San Pietro

The Basilica of San Pietro stands on Tuscania's hilltop Colle di San Pietro, identified by the municipality as the probable site of the ancient acropolis. Its Romanesque façade, Cosmatesque decoration and crypt of reused columns make it one of the city's principal medieval monuments.

Why it matters

San Pietro served as Tuscania's cathedral until the fifteenth century. The tourism portal places the church's beginnings in the eighth century, with substantial rebuilding in the eleventh. Its hilltop setting also preserves the medieval ecclesiastical quarter, where three defensive towers remain around the church and open forecourt.

What to notice

The façade combines a sculpted portal, blind loggia and rose window. The portal's carvings include signs of the zodiac and representations of the seasons; the rose window is arranged in concentric circles with symbols of the Evangelists. Inside, a Cosmatesque floor marks an earlier building phase. The raised presbytery contains an eleventh-century ciborium with an inscription dated 1093, while a second, thirteenth-century ciborium stands in the right aisle. Etruscan sarcophagi line part of the left aisle. The crypt, dated between the eleventh and twelfth centuries by the municipal and tourism accounts, rests on Roman masonry and is supported by reused columns. A surviving fresco of Tuscania's patron saints is attributed to Gregorio d'Arezzo.

Context and history

The hill's ecclesiastical quarter was fortified during the central Middle Ages. The sack of Tuscania in 1495 began a long period of depopulation on the hill. The 1971 earthquake damaged the basilica, destroying its rose window and a large apse fresco; subsequent restoration returned the church to use. Fragments of its medieval painted decoration remain.