CULUMBARIA

Some consist of rough, uneven niches, but others (at Colombarie) are quite elegant and refined and contemporaries of those built outside Rome during the Augustan age.

The collapsing of the tufa makes it impossible to enter many of them, but even in ancient times some could only be accessed via temporary ladders. The entrance consists of a small vestibule that leads to two four-sided chambers with windows; square niches, with curved tops, placed in the walls at even distances.

The debate over the use of these columbaria is still open. There are those who maintain that they were used to raise and shelter pigeons, and others who view them as an example of the “Roman burial columbaria”. One very interesting hypothesis takes their location into account.

The columbaria are located in tufaceous walls overlooking the River Lente. This river is full of fish, and nearby are woods and pastures so it seems to have been the ideal location for establishing a village that predated the advent of the Etruscans. The village was linked to the land below via a rope ladder that was pulled in every night to protect the inhabitants from enemy raids.

The natural position offered the people safety and tranquility. The Etruscans probably used these early cave dwellings for burial purposes because there would have been no reason or advantage in building them in such a difficult position. In fact, the Etruscans generally built their necropolis in easily accessible locations (such at the site at San Rocco).

After the Etruscans it is possible that the Romans used them to shelter thousands of carrier pigeons – a business that flourished during their era – but this is only one of many hypotheses.