HISTORY
History
Becomes
Culture
An area northwest of Rome, also called Tuscia. Etruria is a concept without precise geographical or cultural delimitations.
In this land, infused with life long before humans were to inhabit it, volcanoes gave birth to forests, canyons, fertile land, and mysterious lakes.
The Etruscans, a civilization with unknown, possibly Eastern, origins, were later, around the 7th Century BC, to populate this magical and rich corner of Italy. They left to posterity innumerable treasures, painted tombs, and other artifacts at which to marvel, some of which have been given to the Etruscan Museum of Tarquinia and Rome, the famed Villa Giulia.
In the Middle Ages towns sprang up on the top of rocky, often volcanic formations; natural fortresses, overlooking the countryside and numerous waterways.
Later, Princes and Popes built their magnificent palaces and gardens to solidify their power and to demonstrate their exquisite taste and patronage of the latest architectural and engineering ideas of the time. While the sea gave access to the outside world, ancient roads, sometimes aligned to this day with Roman aqueducts, allowed a rich exchange of goods, culture and people.
Past
& Present
It is no surprise that such riches and the mythologies of this land drew many writers and artists towards them, not least Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin and Camille Corot.
Later, in the 20th Century, artists from abroad such as Twombly, Balthus, Matta and Niki de Saint Phalle followed in their footsteps and chose to live there for a good part of each year.
The writer DH Lawrence, dedicated an entire book, “Etruscan Places”, to the area, while the filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini paid homage in his oeuvre to locals and their way of life.
At much the same time, Gustav Adolph of Sweden, the “Archeologist King” published in 1962, with Columbia University Press, an extensive volume entitled “Etruscan Culture, Land and People”, including many drawings, maps, and photographs. It is the fruit of in-depth archeological, anthropological, and geological research, based on his numerous stays in Etruria.
As of today, new cultural institutions continue to be born, ranging in their scope from music, performance and theatre to architecture and art. The exchange between the distant past, nature, local traditions, and crafts, further nourished by the influence of more remote cultures, remains alive and vibrant.