The name "Roman" - as also found in the names of other towns such as Monte Romano, Oriolo Romano, Bassano Romano - not only distinguishes the name of the town from similar ones, but it also high­lights the geocultural influence of Barbarano on the area around the capital. The town is on the southern end of the Tuscia area of Viterbo, bordering on the province of Rome. Set here in the lush vegetation are precious groups of tufaceous burial grounds: they are the rocky necropolises, the only evidence of the ancient and thriv­ing Etruscan villages that dotted the coun­tryside. One of them (perhaps Marturanum­) was located on a tufaceous plateau a short distance from Barbarano. Set­tlement of the modern-day town began dur­ing the first few decades of the second millennium:­ a document dating to 1188 in­forms us that the castle of Barbarano was subject to the commune of Viterbo. The his­toric centre, which has a late medieval lay­out, is accessed through the gate of Porta Romana that opens out along the sturdy fortified walls with cylindrical and square towers. The parish church of the Assunta, reconstructed during the eighteenth centu­ry, dates to the thirteenth century. The church of the Crocefisso safeguards a well-made sixteenth-century figure of Christ. The Municipio also has a small archaeological museum, with two Nenfro sarcophaguses dating to the fourth-third century BC, several cinerary urns from the ninth-seventh century BC, votive terracot­tas, bronze vases and Falisco vases from the fourth century BC, Attic red-figure ce­ramics and Greek black-figure vases from the fifth century BC, a lion in peperino stone and an obelisk-shaped stone dating to the fourth century BC. The necropolises near the Etruscan pagus of San Giuliano are very interesting. The tombs date to the sixth and fifth centuries BC, the finest age of this civilisation before the economic and political crisis arose. Because of the variety of architectural types, the burial grounds of San Giuliano represent one of the founda­tions for studies on Etruscan funerary art. Important tombs include the Costa tomb, with its richly carved ceiling, the Cima tomb, the Rosi tomb, the Cervo tomb and the imposing Regina tomb. The necropolis is part of the Marturanum suburban park.