Area archeologica di Fiesole

The archaeological area of Fiesole preserves Etruscan, Roman and Lombard remains on a terraced hillside. Its theatre, baths, temple sanctuary, Etruscan walls and burial ground document the long history of ancient Faesulae.

Why it matters

The site brings together monuments from several periods of Fiesole's history. The theatre and baths belonged to the Roman city; an Etruscan sanctuary preceded a Roman rebuilding at the temple site; and inhumation tombs date to the Lombard presence in the seventh and eighth centuries. The adjoining Civic Archaeological Museum preserves material excavated from the area.

What to notice

The Roman theatre was built against the slope, with a cavea above the semicircular orchestra and the masonry core of the stage building. Vaulted side passages gave access to the seating area. Fragments of marble decoration from the scaenae frons are held in the museum. The bath complex preserves rows of brick pilae, or suspensurae, that supported a raised floor, hollow wall tiles that carried warm air and furnace rooms. The surviving arrangement identifies cold, warm and hot bathing spaces.

At the temple site, the staircase leading to the cella belongs to the Roman rebuilding. A copy of the Hellenistic altar stands nearby; the original is preserved in the museum. Votive bronzes from the sanctuary include a small owl associated with Minerva.

Context and history

The sanctuary developed in three phases. An archaic Etruscan temple of the sixth century BC is represented chiefly by architectural decoration preserved in the museum. A later Hellenistic Etruscan temple, dated between the fourth and second centuries BC, left partial walls, a staircase, an altar and a votive deposit of bronzes and terracottas. After a fire, a Roman temple was built on the same plan at some point between the first century BC and the third century AD.

The theatre and baths were built around the turn of the era, in the late first century BC or early first century AD, and both underwent restoration in the third century. The theatre was abandoned by the fourth century. Excavations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revealed a Lombard necropolis near the temple cella, evidence of settlement in Fiesole during the seventh and eighth centuries. The finds contributed to the Civic Archaeological Museum, founded in 1878 and installed in its own building in 1914.