Artena is a town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' in the

Metropolitan City of Rome Metropolitan City of Rome Capital ( it, Città metropolitana di Roma Capitale) is an area of local government at the level of metropolitan city in the Lazio region of the Republic of Italy. It comprises the territory of the city of Rome and 120 o ...

, Italy. It is situated in the northwest of

Monti Lepini The Monti Lepini (Italian: Lepini mountains) are a mountain range which belongs to the Anti-Apennines of the Lazio region of central Italy, between the two provinces of Latina and Rome. The range borders to the north with the Colli Albani, to t ...

, in the upper valley of the

Sacco River The Sacco is a river of central Italy, a right tributary of the Liri. It flows between the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital and the province of Frosinone in Lazio. Territory The river originates from the Prenestini Mountains, formed by the ...

. It is approximately southeast by rail, and direct from Rome. The economy is based on agriculture, animal husbandry and tourism.

History

The name of the original village of the

Volsci The Volsci (, , ) were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. At the time they inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the ...

is uncertain; ''Ecetra'' or ''Fortinum'' are possible suggestions. The modern village was called Monte Fortino until 1873. It owes its present name to an unproven identification of the site with the ancient Volscian Artena, destroyed in 404 BC. Another Artena, which was an

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities ** Etrusca ...

town belonging to the district of

Caere : Caere (also Caisra and Cisra) is the Latin name given by the Romans to one of the larger cities of southern Etruria, the modern Cerveteri, approximately 50–60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome. To the Etruscans it was known as Cisra, to ...

, and laying between it and

Veii Veii (also Veius; it, Veio) was an important ancient Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the comune of Rome. Many other sites associated with and in the ...

, was destroyed in the period of the kings, and its site is unknown. In the Middle Ages Artena was a fief of the

Counts of Tusculum The counts of Tusculum, also known as the Theophylacti, were a family of secular noblemen from Latium that maintained a powerful position in Rome between the 10th and 12th centuries. Several popes and an antipope during the 11th century came fr ...

and then the Counts of Segni, who held its castle until 1475 when, after request of

Charles VIII of France Charles VIII, called the Affable (french: l'Affable; 30 June 1470 – 7 April 1498), was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He succeeded his father Louis XI at the age of 13.Paul Murray Kendall, ''Louis XI: The Universal Spider'' (Ne ...

, it was assigned to the

Colonna The House of Colonna, also known as ''Sciarrillo'' or ''Sciarra'', is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Martin V) and many other church and politica ...

. Due to the latter's anti-papal stance, Artena was ravaged several times by papal armies (1526, 1543 and 1557).

Main sights

On the mountain above the village are the fine remains of the fortifications of a city built in the 6th or 5th century BC, in cyclopean blocks of local limestone. Within the walls are traces of buildings, and a massive terrace which supported some edifice of importance. This terraced settlement (Piano della Cività) later was the site of a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

.C. Brouillard, J. Gadeyne, A. Rovelli. 2012. "La villa romana del Piano della Civita (Artena, Roma). Campagna di scavo 2010. Una struttura alto-medievale ed un tesoretto monetale bizantino", in ''Lazio e Sabina 8'', a cura di G. Ghini e Z. Mari, Roma 2012, pp. 305-311. Other sights include the ''Palazzo Borghese'' (17th century), and the churches of Santa Maria delle Letizie, Santa Croce, Santo Stefano Protomartire and San Francesco.

Twin towns

Alcalá del Río Alcalá del Río is a municipality in Seville, Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , ...

, Spain

References

External links

* Cities and towns in Lazio Italic archaeological sites Volsci {{Lazio-geo-stub