Privernum Archaeological Area

The Privernum Archaeological Park is in Mezzagosto, 5 km north-east of Priverno, in the heart of the Amaseno valley. It covers an area of about 7 hectares and inside it recomposes impressive glimpses of the Roman Privernum, a colony founded at the end of the 2nd century BC still at the center of continuous excavation campaigns and restoration and enhancement interventions. The Park preserves monuments, buildings and infrastructures that mark the life of the settlement from the moment of its foundation until its abandonment, which took place between the 12th and 13th centuries AD, when the city, with the name Piperno, was transferred to the hill which still hosts Priverno today. Visible vestiges of the imperial age are the imposing remains of the theater with a large arcaded square behind it, a spa building built after the second century AD, and the luxury residences of the Republican age enriched with precious mosaic floors. Very recent excavations have also brought to light the early medieval phase of the city and, enclosed within a mighty city wall, and the cathedral dating back to the sixth century, which underwent a complete renovation in the ninth century, restoring that sumptuous sculptural and pictorial apparatus exposed to the Fossanova Archaeological Museum.