Archaeological Park of Urbs Salvia


The Archaeological Park of Urbs Salvia is situated in the comune of Urbisaglia , in the Marches, Italy. It is the largest archaeological park in the region.

History

The city, located in the V Regio Picenum, was founded as a colonia during the 2nd century BC. It was the birthplace of some leading figures of the Roman Empire, such as the consul Gaius Fufius Geminus and Lucius Flavius Silva Nonius Bassus.
Urbs Salvia was sacked by the Visigoths in 408–10 AD, and suffered destruction over the years from earthquakes and plundering. The decadence of the town is described by the poet Dante Alighieri in his Divine Comedy :

If Luni thou regard, and Urbisaglia,

How they have passed away, and how are passing

Chiusi and Senigallia after them,

To hear how races waste themselves away

Will seem to thee no novel thing nor hard

Seeing that even cities have an end.

Archaeological Park

The Archaeological Park of Urbs Salvia is exceptional on account of the ease with which the overall building plan can be deciphered. The itinerary starts at the Archaeological Museum which houses, among other things, epigraphs, statues and portraits that were excavated in Urbisaglia from the middle of the 18th century onwards.

Reservoir

Just outside the medieval city walls, on the highest point of the site, you can find the large reservoir collecting and cleaning the water coming from the Roman Aqueduct of Urbs Salvia. It was formed by an underground vaulted conduit with lateral walls made of bricks. The ancient aqueduct ran under the top of this hill and was about 1.5 km long. It had a gentle and constant slope so that it could carry water from a spring situated at the opposite side of the present-day Urbisaglia into this structure.
The cisterns consist of two barrel vaulted tunnels connected at both ends, with internal walls covered by hydraulic mortar. The whole structure was built in opus caementicium.
Each tunnel was about 51 m long, 2.90 m wide and 4.10 m high and had a capacity of about 1,000 cubic metres of water.

The reservoir provided the whole town with spring water and it was situated in the highest area inside Urbs Salvia so that it could be powered only by gravity. In the reservoir are still visible:
Proceeding downwards there is the imposing Roman theatre, built in 23 AD, on the Hellenic model. The structure presents a cavea divided into three tiers of seats with entrances on the different levels. Around the cavea there is a corridor with steps running to the top, where there was a sacellum. Of the original stage the lower part of the walling is preserved; behind the stage, there is an artificial terrace which was framed by a colonnade supported by solid brick walling. Lower down is a niched building, a containment wall which is to be included in the whole urban context pivoting on an axis characterized by the Theatre – Forum – Temple.
At the foot of the hill, conveniently placed alongside the Salaria Gallica, was the sanctuary-complex. The main temple had a six-column facade. What remains of the original structure is part of the podium lacking the white limestone slabs with which it was originally paved. It was dedicated to the Salus Augusta, and was probably used for the imperial cult promoted by Tiberius, successor of Augustus. The temple is enclosed by a porticus made up of four underground galleries with frescoes in the. The frescoes represent haunting animals, masks, and pictures connected with Augustus' political propaganda.
Next to the main temple there is a smaller one. Behind it there is an area which was probably devoted to the ritual use of water, and behind the main temple there is a via munita, corresponding to the first East cardo.
Just outside the city walls, there are two funeral monuments and the amphitheatre, one of the best preserved examples of this type in the Marche region.

The amphitheatre was built after the year 81 AD by the Urbisalvian Titus' military general Lucius Flavius Silva Nonius Bassus, who captured the Masada fortress in Palestine. The amphitheatre was used for gladiatorial contests and other entertainments. All its perimeter is preserved up to the first seating level, including the first level of the vomitoria and the bases of the pillars of the external corridor. In its original form it probably had three tiers of seats. The external wall of the cavea had a series of semicircular niches which later formed the supports of the stairs to the entrances on the upper floors. The arena is 59m long and 35m wide. The two entrances at the major axis of the elliptical amphitheatre were for the gladiators.