2024

ANTICA CITTÀ ROMANA DI COSA

Ancient monuments

At the top of the rocky promontory of Ansedonia, at an altitude of 114 metres, stand the ruins of the ancient city of Cosa, founded by the Romans in 273 BC. Cosa's name would come from "Cusia" or "Cusi", an older Etruscan city that was below the place where Orbetello is located today. It is a moving site to imagine the 2,500 families who lived there and founded this powerful autonomous city, with its own laws and currency. The Roman colony of Cosa was entirely surrounded by powerful walls extending for more than a kilometre, pierced by three access gates and with seventeen towers, one of which was circular. The entrance to this archaeological area, unjustly unknown to tourists, is through the Fiorentina Gate (to the northwest). You can walk among the ancient remains, such as sacred temples, baths, private houses, cisterns, as well as the cyclopean ramparts, the acropolis and the forum, once the city's main square. Imagine, this area formed a large square 90 metres long by 30 metres wide! On the sides of the forum, one can see the remains of the atria (places of exchange for commercial affairs), and those of the basilica which had sixteen columns.

To deepen your visit, the small museum, worthy of interest and with documentation in French, houses objects discovered on the site, such as dishes, coins, sculptures...

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