It was once the ancient Etruscan city of Falerii Veteres. The massive Rocca dei Borgia fortress was originally designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder and the work was started in 1492 during the era of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, who would later become Pope Alexander VI. The construc­tion was completed under the pontificate of Julius II with the addition of the impos­ing octagonal tower. Subsequently, Pope Leo X had additional decorative work planned and Pius IV commissioned the Zuccari brothers to fresco the apartments on the piano nobile. Several rooms host the National Archaeological Museum of Agro Falisco. In the first room, there is an exhibit of the oldest artefacts, dating from the tenth to the sixth century BC. The ones in the second room are more recent (third century BC), including a splendid deinos (Attic black-figure pottery) decorated by Antimes, and an elegant red-figure oenochoe depicting a female figure looking at herself in a mirror. There are numerous bronzes (sixth-third century BC) in the third room (wheels, mirrors, candelabras, etc.), as well as several pieces of Attic pottery, including a krater with the apotheosis of Heracles by the "London Painter". The fourth hall is dedicated to the reconstruction of a tomb, while the fifth one continues with the exhibit of red-figure ceramics from the Falisco school, as well as numerous architectural terracottas, including a fragment of Attic pottery. In the sixth room, you can admire the artefacts unearthed in Falerii Novi and nearby Corchiano. On the other side of the loggia are three rooms with arte­facts from temples and funerary artefacts from the Falisco and Etruscan cultures. Exhibited in the eighth room is a Attic black-figure krater dating to the sixth cen­tury BC as well as gold ornamental objects. Lastly, the ninth hall holds local pottery and Attic red- and black-figure ceramics.

The Duomo - or cathedral - is another noteworthy construction built in the twelfth century, probably over a pre-exist­ing building, and later modified and trans­formed during the eighteenth century. A lovely portico on columns with architraves and a large median arch beautifully em­bellish the perspective of the temple, whose mosaic dating to 1210 represents one of the finest works of the Roman mar­ble-workers Jacopo di Lorenzo and his son Cosma. The middle portico, which is deco­rated with a marble frame enclosing a polychrome mosaic ornamentation, is topped by a lunette with a half rose. The lunette in the right portico holds a lovely mosaic depicting Christ Benedictory. In the portico - amidst stones, slabs, tablets and capitals from various eras - we can admire a precious Roman altar in Greek marble with relief decorations. The inside of the church, which was restructured in the Baroque style, has a Latin cross layout with a Cosmati-work floor and an elevated presbytery. The baptistery has a fifteenth-century font. The altar in the nave is com­posed of a Roman marble sarcophagus and its middle decoration depicts the Primacy of Peter. The ambo was reconstructed with fragments of the original church and Cosmati work. Over the left altar is a fif­teenth-century tavola by the Roman school depicting Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, while over the right altar we can admire the Madonna of Light, a four­teenth-century fresco in a gilt frame. To the left of the main altar, there is a chapel with two precious Cosmati-style plutei that girded the presbytery, Longobard fragments and the remains of frescoes. The Romanesque crypt is also worthy of note. It features cross-vaults sustained by columns decorated with capitals from var­ious eras, while there are two Renaissance ciboria on the walls. Preserved in the adja­cent bishop's palace is a magnificent tavola dating to the twelfth-thirteen cen­tury, done by the Roman school and de­picting the Redeemer Benedictory.

The interior of the parish house of the church of San Francesco dates to the eighteenth century. It features a tavola of San Bernardino done by Sano di Pietro at the turn of the fifteenth century and a 1480 painting attributed to Antoniazzo Romano depicting the Adoration of the Child. The church of Santa Maria del Carmine, which was redone is the six­teenth century, has a terracotta bell tower as well as double-lancet windows dating to the twelfth-thirteenth century. The interi­or has a nave and two aisles, divided by fluted Roman columns with different styles of capitals.

The Palazzo Comunale, built during the age of Leo X, covers the short end of the main square, which is distinguished by archways, main doors, alleys and shops.

A small pottery museum has been set up in the eighteenth-century Palazzo Petro­ni-Andosilla. The museum features an in­teresting exhibit of artefacts from the early Middle Ages to the first half of the twentieth century.

Civita Castellana was the birthplace of musicians Domenico and Virgilio Maz­zocchi, who lived during the first half of the seventeenth century.

The local economy is based mainly on the ceramic and kitchenware industry.