Museo della Cattedrale e Labirinto di Porsenna

The Cathedral Museum

Today's exhibition is divided into four sections that collect materials of great value, early Christian, medieval and modern (until the nineteenth century). Among the many elements there are two reliquary caskets, wood and ivory, made by Bottega Embriachi (XV century) and the splendid collection of codes, Rare Benedictine (second half of the fifteenth century) coming from the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore.

The Labyrinth of Porsenna

It is an underground route of about one hundred and thirty meters consists of tunnels that are part of a complex Etruscan hydraulic system, which is organized under the entire city. Popular tradition has long identified these galleries with "the inextricable labyrinth" which was located in the basement of the grandiose mausoleum of Porsenna, described by Pliny the Elder in a passage of his Naturalis Historia.

A legend, forsemedievale, said that the sarcophagus of the great Etruscan king was kept in a golden chariot drawn by twelve horses all of gold, guarded by a hen and five chicks ... gold too.

From tunnels to reach a monumental cistern "Etruscan-Roman", circular, with a central pillar and double barrel vault, built with large blocks of travertine walled dry (II-I century BC). The visit of the Porsenna Labyrinth ends in the bell tower, from whose top you can admire a splendid panorama.