Luogo - Archaeological Area
ALBA FUCENS
Where
Località Albe, Massa d'Albe (L'Aquila)
The site of Alba Fucens is one of the most important archaeological evidences in the Abruzzi.
Built on the Via Valeria, which led from the Fucino basin to Rome, the town was provided with a right-angled road system when it was founded between the end of the IV and the beginning of the III century B.C.
The excavations, started in 1949, have brought to light the calcareous defenses, the four entrance gates of the town, the forum, the basilica, the macellum, the laconicum, a temple dedicated to Hercules, the theater and the amphitheater.
On the main road, called "Road of the Elephant" because of a few marble decorative heads of elephants found there, there are remains of the columnated porch of the forum, of the basilica and of the macellum, the square building of the town market.
In the South-east area there are remains of a bath-structure, of which the archaeologists have recognized the laconium, a room located before the steam baths, and a temple consecrated to Hercules; here they discovered a huge statue of the eponymous god, dated to the first half of the I century B.C. and today kept in Chieti.
On the so called "Road of Pillars" a few tabernae lie, along with the theater; the "Milestone Road" leads westward to a Roman domus, to the amphitheater and to the Romanic Saint Peter's church, built upon the ruins of a pagan temple dedicated to Apollo and Diana.
