Nestled in the Lazio mountains, Altari is the village of the Sistema Museale MuseumGrandTour situated furthest east, already in the province of Frosinone. This itinerary will take our traveler on a journey to discover the archeological and medieval history of one of the most fascinating spots in Ciociaria, giving them a chance to poke around the stories and myths surrounding its foundation. Considered one of the noblest art cities in Southern Lazio, whose charm is amplified by the amazing coexistence of archaic monumental elements with the ones from subsequent time periods – especially from the Middle Ages – Alatri is also one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

The path through this urban itinerary starts at the majestic Mura Poligonali (polygonal walls) surrounding the Acropoli di Civita, emblem of the megalithic Lazio cities that inspired countless mysteries and legends and which gave it the name of “City of Cyclops”. Located at the top of a hill, Alatri’s acropolis is particularly interesting because of its polygonal walls made up of various layers with megaliths of different shapes and sizes, often taller than 3 mt, which fit together perfectly without the use of cement or concrete. The city walls cover a perimeter of 400 mt and, preceded by a set of steps, is the acropolis, opened by two doors: the Porta Maggiore and the Porta Minore. Beyond the first ring of walls there’s a second polygonal wall, wider but still concentric to the acropolis (measuring almost 2 km), with five door openings topped by a monolithic architrave, of which only the Porta di San Bernardo remains.

Right in the middle of the acropolis clearing is the Duomo di San Paolo, built on the remains of an ancient heroic altar called “ierone” and a temple dedicated to Saturn. The first news of an ancient cathedral date back to a time before the year 1000, as evidenced by archival documents that mentioned a cathedral back in 930. During the papacy of Innocenzo II (1130-1143) the remains of the martyr pope Sisto I were moved to Alatri and on this occasion the old cathedral was renovated for the first time. Reworked several more times over the centuries, the church acquired its current look in the 1600/1700s: among its original parts, still intact to this day, is the statue of Saint Sisto, of recent craftsmanship but with its 1584 silver face. Another finding from the Acropoli di Civita, now preserved on the first floor of the Civic Museum of Alatri, is the remarkable section dedicated to ancient Aletrium with inscriptions and archeological findings. In the Civic Museum, ancient and medieval history of the town merge together: housed in the medieval Palazzo Gottifredo, in the heart of Alatri’s old town center, the Civic Museum is organized in several sections that spread over the different floors of the tower-house: in addition to the aforementioned section on ancient times on the first floor, the ground floor i offers a section on “Viaggiatori di scoperta” (travelers of discovery) with an interesting multicolored mosaic floor with geometric decorations from 80-90 b.C.; in the mezzanine is a section dedicated to Etruscan art and, on the third floor, a demo-ethno-anthropological collection of tools and instruments of local rural and artisanal life that tell the story of the town’s traditions, old and new. One of Alatri’s buildings most representative of its medieval period is the gothic Church of San Francesco (XIII-XIV century), located in the “Le Piagge” neighborhood, between Santa Maria Maggiore Square and Porta San Francesco. Constructed at the end of the XIII century, and internally remodeled in baroque style during the XVIII century, it boasts a large single gate and a finely decorated rose window, in addition to some quality pieces like the Deposizione from the seventeenth-century neapolitan school. The church was annexed to a convent from 1359 whose spaces, now used as exhibition halls, host in a narrow gap between walls, a fresco from an unknown author, discovered in 1997, depicting Christ Pantocrator at the center of a labyrinth with eleven spirals (so twelve circles with a diameter of 140 mt): regarded as an iconographical unicum, it is thought to be a nod to the Templar presence inside the fortified walls of the town. Particularly interesting and fascinating is the fact that, the path depicted in the labyrinth, is the exact same that’s illustrated on the floor of the Chartres Cathedral in France.