Parco Archeologico di Roselle (Area archeologica di Roselle)

Before Grosseto, Roselle was a major city of the plain. The Etruscan settlement on two hills became Roman Rusellae, with a forum, baths and amphitheatre. Today its walls and excavated streets form an extensive archaeological park.

Why it matters

The Ministry of Culture traces organised settlement at Roselle to the early seventh century BC. On the northern hill, terracing and a fenced building suggest an early centre of cult or power. Livy records the Roman conquest in 294 BC under the consul Lucius Postumius Megello. The city later gained an amphitheatre, a monumental forum, basilicas and baths. In 1138 the diocese was transferred to Grosseto, marking a later stage in Roselle's decline. The remains preserve the outline of an ancient urban centre.

What to notice

The city's sixth-century BC walls extend for more than three kilometres and enclose the two hills. On the northern hill are Etruscan houses, including the so-called casa dell'impluvium; the southern hill preserves traces of workshops. Between them, a Hellenistic temple precinct preceded the Roman civic centre, where the forum, basilica and amphitheatre are visible. Excavations continue to add to understanding of the site.

Context and history

Roselle's history runs from early settlement and Etruscan urban life to Roman municipality and late-antique bishopric. Enfranchised in 89 BC and later made a colony, Rusellae prospered in the first and second centuries AD. The forum received its final paving, and the amphitheatre was built before the middle of the first century. In late antiquity and the early medieval period, buildings were repurposed, including a church established over the baths. In 1138 Pope Innocent II transferred the diocese to Grosseto. Systematic excavations began in 1957 under the German Archaeological Institute and continued under the Florentine superintendency, bringing the inhabited city into focus alongside its necropoleis.