Anfiteatro etrusco, Sutri

Speranza



The Etruscan amphitheatre lies outside and below Sutri. It is small and elliptical, cut from the dark red rock and overhung with great ilex trees and by a blasted evergreen oak.

The corridors, seats, and vomitories, and the flights of steps are in many parts perfect, although dripping with moisture and stained with grey-green moss and lichen.

The amphitheatre is thought to date from about the 1st century BC when Sutri, repeatedly captured and lost again, was under Roman rule.

The method of construction is Etruscan, though.

The Sutri amphitheatre was hidden for centuries beneath a forest of holm oaks and ilex trees.

It was first excavated by the Marquis Savorelli at the end of the 19th century.

The Marquis Savorelli erected a balustrade belvedere in his garden on the cliff above the amphitheatre, from which he could look down on his discovery. It is still there.