Additional Events

Two excursions to the “Etruscan Museum in Chianciano Terme” and to “Porsenna’s Labyrinth” in Chiusi (17 kms, 10 miles from Chianciano Terme) have been organised for all attendees. The days and times for the excursions will be notified at a later stage

Etruscan Museum in Chianciano Terme 

        The Museum is housed in an elegant late 19th-century building in via Dante, immediately before Chianciano old town, opposite to the Civic Library .
        The museum has been arranged in three sections, each containing materials from the different historic phases of Chianciano's territory. The first section of the museum (ground floor) contains items from the graveyard at La Pedata, the most important and widespread necropolis of both territories of Chianciano and Chiusi It is set on the northern slope of the Astrone valley, along an ancient route that, through the Orcia and the Ombrone valleys, linked the Etruscan town of Chiusi to the Tyrrhenian coast. Other graveyards are located at Morelli, Morellino and Le Piane.
        The tombs at Morelli turned out to be the most ancient, dating back to the last decades of the 7th century B. C.; nearby items from Roman age were recovered as well, and more recently tombs belonging to the archaic and classic period were found that contained bucchero vases, Etruscan-Corinthian pottery, miniature vases etc.
        In 1995 a sensational discovery was made in the graveyard at Morelli: a prince tomb was of the Orientalist phase (7th century B.C.) was found still intact along with its precious contents.. The tomb has been rebuilt life size in this first section of the Museum. Also the burial furnishings have been replaced as they were when discovered..

“Porsenna’s Labyrinth”  

       Cathedral Square constitutes the monumental heart of present-day Chiusi. The excavations made in the 2nd half of the eighties by the Soprintendenza Archeologica per la Toscana have brought to light stretches of the city-walls of the hellenistic, roman and medieval periods, located at a few metres from the entrance of the intricate tunnel-system, that extends itself under the entire hill.

       Dug in the sandstone, the tunnels surely had functions concerning the drainage and water-supply, exploiting the ability of the conglomerate they were in contact with, to absorb and to restore the water like a gigantic sponge. The water was then led to the surface or gathered in big subterranean basins.  

       It is a particularly extensive and ingenious system, that bears testimony to the proverbial skill of the Etruscans to guarantee the water-supply of their town.

       The underground passages of Perugia, Todi and Orvieto are similar in purpose and structure. At Chiusi the subterranean network is distributed over different levels with many ascending wells able to favour the drainage and to guarantee the ventilation of the sorroundings, whereas other wells served to draw ground water from above.

       The objects found inside the tunnels during the excavations demonstrate, that the system was already in use in Etruscan times, and that at end of the first century A.D. at least part of the stretch brought to light in the Episcopal Garden, had lost its original functions of “water-mine”. The passages were infact used as a rubbish dump of the town above and were here and there also interrupted by masonry cisterns, which gathered the rain-water coming from the roofs of the buildings.

       The intricate system of subterranean passages has, since time immemorial, been connceted with the legendary Etruscan king Porsenna on account of the fabulous description of his tomb, handed down to us by Plinius the Older, according to which: “… the king was buried under the town of Chiusi, in a monument with a square basement (each side measuring 90 metres), that contained an inextricable labyrinth and was surmounted by pyramids and a covering of bronze sheets”. And it is with these tunnels, that popular tradition has always identified the labyrinth of the legend.