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The Archaeological Area and Museum of Fiesole, Tuscany

Via Portigiani 1,Fiesole
Fiesole was an important commercial and strategic Etruscan centre due to its closeness to the Apennines. During the Roman period it was an extremely vital centre and an unexpugnable town under the Goths and the Longobards. The centre preserves therefore very important archaeological remains, now preserved in the Archaeological Area and Museum. The Archaeological site is actually a very beautiful and suggestive park that still bears traces of the remains of a theatre and of the springs that seem to appear out of nowhere in between olives and cypresses, in a relaxing and luxuriant landscape.

The theatre dates back to the end of the I century B.C., after the Roman conquest of the town. At the time it was built it could contain up to 2,000 spectators and was richly decorated with marble and pietra serena friezes. The theatre was abandoned at the end of the III century BC and ended up being buried and finally disappeared. Traces of it remained in local memories (as the toponym Buca delle Fate seems to suggest). It was partially excavated in the early 19th century, used as quarry for the materials and again buried to prevent it from being completely demolished. At the end of the last century it was again excavated, restored and used to represent theatre shows based on Greek and Roman texts. It is now used to represent some of the initiatives organised in summer by the Estate Fiesolana.

There are still consistent remains – swimming pool, calidarium and frigidarium – of the hot springs, one of the most popular and characteristic sites of the Roman Fiesole. Built a few years after the theatre, the hot springs were delimited by a large paved mosaic portico. Two swimming pools were located in the outdoor section of the building, which was entirely dedicated to swimming and other sports activities. The eastern side is instead covered and houses the hot baths and the saunas.

The area in front of the hot springs is taken up by the so-called sacred area that is rather complex from an archaeological point of view and characterised by the presence of two Roman temples belonging to two different periods. The area has an altar, a staircase and a monumental podium (I and III centuries BC), built over a pre-existing Etruscan site (IV century BC) that is still evident in the upper sections.

Recent excavations have also found in the same area several Longobard tombs containing very important objects to understand and study this culture in Italy. All the objects excavated are displayed in the Archaeological museum. This museum, situated inside the archaeological site, offers a very interesting collection of several findings, thus offering visitors the possibility of exploring the development of an ancient town from the II millennium BC, down to the Etruscan, Roman, Longobard and early medieval age.

The collection of the museum displays in particular archaic Etruscan steles in pietra serena, a large statue of a lioness in bronze, a part of a sculptural work belonging to the Ellenistic period, the marble friezes of the theatre with scenes representing Dyonisus, a faithfully reconstructed Longobard tomb with skeleton and related objects, collector's ceramics, which include in particular the Costantini collection consisting of about 160 ceramics comprising Corynthian, Attic vases with red and black figures, Etruscan and also Greek vases.

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