A Roman city with amphitheatre and basilica at the foot of Monte Velino
On a plateau at about 1,000 metres, at the foot of the imposing Monte Velino, near Avezzano in the Marsica, lie the ruins of Alba Fucens, one of the best preserved Roman cities in central Italy. It was founded in 303 BC as a Latin colony, with 6,000 settlers, to control the territory of the Italic peoples of the area, the Aequi and the Marsi, and the route of the Via Valeria, the road that connected Rome to the Adriatic. Surrounded by powerful polygonal walls about three kilometres long, the city was also used by the Romans as a place of imprisonment for defeated enemy kings, such as Syphax of Numidia and Perseus of Macedon.
The excavations, begun in 1949 by Belgian archaeologists, have brought to light a large part of the city, with its regular plan: the forum, the basilica, the market with its shops, the baths, houses with mosaic floors, the paved streets, and the sanctuary of Hercules, where a large marble statue of the god was found, now displayed in the Museo Archeologico in Chieti. On the slope of a hill is the amphitheatre, built in the first century AD and capable of holding thousands of spectators. On the hill above the ruins stands the church of San Pietro in Albe, built in the twelfth century on the remains of a temple of Apollo, with ancient columns and a magnificent Cosmatesque pulpit and iconostasis of the thirteenth century. The medieval village of Albe, destroyed by the earthquake of 1915, was rebuilt below.
Tip: walk the whole site to appreciate the city plan; don't miss the church of San Pietro, with its Cosmatesque furnishings.
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