It stands on the edge of the Maremma area of Viterbo, between Viterbo, Lake Bolsena and the Tyrrhenian Sea. This is one of the most fertile areas in Tuscia, characterised by endless fields, which in summer become golden with yellow corn, dappled here and there with the dark green of undergrowth and wild olives where the herds of cattle driven by cowboys on horseback once used to take shelter. Their images have been immortalised in the canvases of Giuseppe Cesetti, one of the most esteemed painters of the last century. The symbol of Tuscania is the hill of San Pietro, where man has uninterruptedly been present at least since the Iron Age. A significant stability of human settlements, dates to the Etruscan period, as witnessed by the numerous necropolises in the area. The most famous, on the slope opposite the hill, is the one of the Madonna dell'Olivo with the tombs of the Curunas family (containing remarkable sarcophaguses found in 1967-1970), of the Sarcophagus (decorated with scenes of Amazonomachy) and of the Queen, characterised by a series of labyrinths with about thirty tunnels. Of the other necropolises, we should mention Pian di Mola (with a remarkable house tomb), Peschiera (tomb of the Dice) and Carcarello (sepulchre of the Vipinana family), which was explored in the nineteenth century by the family of Vincenzo Campanari. In addition to bronze and ceramic treasures, they retrieved around twenty-four sarcophaguses, which were placed in the garden of their house in Tuscania.

After the Etruscan and Roman periods, which according to the historians were characterised by a peaceful continuity of economic and social life unlikely to be found elsewhere, the hill of San Pietro was first depopulated as a result of the barbarian invasions and then underwent new urbanisation, starting in the eighth century, spreading as far as the nearby hill of Rivellino. The construction of the church of San Pietro dates to this early medieval period, and can now be admired in a renovated state after the alterations carried out in subsequent epochs. The basilica, one of the most magnificent monuments in the Viterbo area, probably dates to the eighth century. It has a remarkable thirteenth-century facade with three portals; the central Cosmati-style portal is surmounted by a gallery of small arches, between two winged animals, and by an elegant rose window incorporated in a panel decorated with the symbols of the Evangelists and flanked by two double lancet windows decorated with fanciful bas-reliefs of the Umbrian school. A series of small blind arches, supported by slender columns, surmounts the side portals that open into the aisles corresponding to the minor naves. Running around the beautiful apse, partly reconstructed after the earthquake of 1971, is an order of small hanging arches that delimit the semi-cylinder, vertical pilasters and stone cornices with inclined planes. The majestic interior has a nave and two aisles divided by columns with richly decorated, original Roman and medieval capitals supporting low arches with an indented double arched lintel, which terminate against the walls of the transept accessed through three arches lead. The central one, which likewise has an indented double arched lintel, leads to the raised presbytery, with a pyramidal ciborium, flanked by two large transversal arches, decorated with plutei dating to the eighth century - probably part of the original church - and preceded by a pulpit. The walls of the main nave are decorated, in the upper part, with a motif of small blind arches supported by half-columns. The remains of the mosaic pavement are worthy of note. In the right-hand aisle there is an eleventh-century ciborium on columns and various Etruscan sarcophaguses can be seen in the left-hand one. The precious twelfth-thirteenth-century frescoes of the Roman school, reflecting Byzantine influence, which decorate the apse, were seriously damaged in the earthquake of 1971.

From the right-hand aisle, by way of a staircase tram which you can see the remains of a structure built ad opus reticulatum, we can go down to the magnificent eleventh-century crypt with cross-vaults supported by 28 marble columns, originating from Roman buildings and decorated with archaic capitals, several of which are Corinthian of the fourth-fifth century. At the foot of the hill stands the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, built during the same period as the church of San Pietro. The facade, preceded by a massive Romanesque tower, has three finely decorated portals. The central one, in white marble, is flanked by two spiral fluted columns: the ornate jambs are sculpted with St. Peter and St. Paul, and depicted in the lunette are the Madonna and Child with the mystic Lamb and the scene of the sacrifice of Abraham. The right-hand portal is decorated with foliage of classical inspiration; the arch of the left-hand portal is ornamented in the Norman-Siculian style. In the upper part there is a small loggia between a lion and a griffin, set beneath a lovely rose window surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists. The semicircular apse is ringed by pilasters and fascias of small arches. The interior has a nave and two aisles divided by columns topped with Romanesque capitals and a trussed roof. The raised presbytery is flanked by two transversal arches; the antependium on the altar, surmounted by a ciborium in the Gothic style with frescoed internal webs, consists of a pluteus of the eighth-ninth century. In the right-hand aisle, there is an octagonal font far baptism by immersion dating to the thirteenth century; in the central one we can admire a precious pulpit of the thirteenth century with fragments of the eighth-ninth century. The apse houses a thirteenth-century fresco of the Roman school with Byzantine influences, depicting the Twelve Apostles. On the arch of the apse in the presbytery, there is a fresco of the Last Judgement.

The historic centre, reconstructed to a large extent after the earthquake damage of 1971 (accessed through the Porta di Poggio or Montascide and Porta San Marco), occupies a site not far from the hill of San Pietro (gradually abandoned after the fourteenth century) along the Via Clodia, a stretch of whose stone block pavement can still be seen. Visitors may have the impression of being in a museum as they walk round the district (enclosed by a late-medieval tuff boundary wall with a wealth of towers), as it is characterised by ancient churches, noblemen's residences, alleys, arches, portal towers, "profferli" (external staircases) and fountains.

Behind the recently built "Rivellino" theatre lies the square overlooked by the Palazzo Comunale (rebuilt in the nineteenth century) , the nineteenth-century church of the Santi Martiri and the former church of Santa Croce (fourteenth-century fresco with the Ascent of Christ to Calvary), now used as a conference hall with an adjoining library.

The cathedral of San Giacomo, with a Renaissance structure and an eighteenth-century interior, houses an admirabie fifteenth-century marble tabernacle, a polyptych of the Sienese school by Andrea di Bartolo (fourteenth century), St. Bernardino by Sano di Pietro from the fifteenth century and a fifteenth-century triptych by Balletta. In the square in front, there is a graceful Vignola-style fountain.

The church of Santa Maria della Rosa is a masterpiece of Romanesque-Gothic art and was built on a former shrine that stood within the castle walls. The simple facade (flanked by a bell tower that began as a square tower and was completed as a bell gable) has three portals: the middle one, with an elegant rose over it, is decorated with spiral columns and original capitals. On the right, beneath a finely sculpted oculus, is a trilobed Gothic lunette. The interior houses a magnificent wooden altarpiece by Giulio Pierino of Amelia. The ancient castle walls and the podium of the original niche are visible in the apse. In the church of San Marco, we can admire several fourteenth-century frescoes, including an Annunciation and a Madonna and Child and a Bishop Saint.

Of the other churches in the historic centre, we should mention the church of San Silvestro dating to the early fourteenth century and rebuilt in the seventeenth century (fourteenth-century fresco of the Tree of Life) and the church of San Francesco (partly in ruins) with the chapel of the Sperapane (remarkable fifteenth-century fresco of the Crucifixion).

In contrast to this wealth of sacred monuments, there are a number of palazzi, all of which well-restored after the 1971 earthquake: Maccabei, Spagnoli, Campanari and Fani-Ciotti. Also within the walls, there are outstanding views tram the view point (along the castle walls), from Piazza Tor di Lavello and from the monastery of San Paolo. A short distance outside the walls, at the beginning of the road to Marta, are the church and former convent of Santa Maria del Riposo. The complex, which has a Renaissance appearance (fifteenth-sixteenth century), was built over the ruins of an old Franciscan cenoby. The church, renovated in the twelfth century and modified in the eighteenth century, has a portal with a lunette dating to the sixteenth century. Inside there is a large altarpiece attributed to Giulio Pierino of Amelia (sixteenth century), a canvas by Gerolamo Siciolante (Presentation at the Temple), a fifteenth-century wooden Crucifix and a sixteenth-century Nativity.

The recently restored former convent next door (with an elegant cloister decorated with seventeenth-century frescoes on the life of St. Francis), houses the National Archaeological Museum. For the time being, it has four rooms with the tomb furnishings belonging to the Curunas and Vipinana families.

The ancient castle of Montebello, about 13 kilometres along the road to Tarquinia, has a surprising collection of works by Giuseppe Cesetti, outstanding tokens of the long artistic activity of the Maestro di Tuscania.