Sezze

The eco system of the marsh was not that unfavourable to the settlement of our ancestors; the ponds and the coastal lakes provided fish which were easy to catch, the volcanic hills had several caves which provided a shelter, the hunting of boars and wild buffaloes was another source of food: these factors explain why so many remains of prehistoric times have been found in the area of Sezze.

View of Sezze

The town of Sezze lies at the top of a hill: while the town has expanded outside the ancient walls on the eastern side, the walls are still limiting it on the side towards the plain where there is a precipitous slope, similar to that of Norma.

Views towards the former marshland
Today Sezze is made up of two very different towns because a part of its population has moved near the railway station on the plain, from where it is very easy to commute to Rome.

Ancient polygonal and Roman walls

Sezze retains sections of its very ancient walls built by laying next to each other gigantic blocks of different shape (other similar walls can be seen in Segni and Alatri) and of the much more elaborated walls built by the Romans when the town fell under their influence in 382 B.C.

Medieval palace near Porta Romana

The old gates of Sezze have been sacrificed to the needs of modern life (with the exception of Porta Paolina shown in the image used as a background for this page) so this interesting building near the lost Porta Romana, which was the main gate of Sezze, cannot be seen in the right context.

Cathedral

The main monument of Sezze is its medieval cathedral, built having in mind the pattern set by Cistercian abbeys, but this was upset in the early XVIIth century when the orientation of the church was reversed and the apse was turned into the entrance with a final result which is rather unique.

Move on to Priverno.

Some other walks:
Walks with Ferdinand Gregorovius in the Roman countryside
In and about Viterbo
From Civitavecchia to Civita Castellana
Around Monte Cimino
From Bracciano to Viterbo
A Pigrims' Way - Via Francigena
In Maremma
Anticoli Corrado where the painters found their models
A walk to Porta Furba
Via Appia Antica from Cecilia Metella to Torre in Selci
Via Appia Antica from Torre in Selci to Frattocchie
A Walk to Ponte di Nona
Branching off Via Cassia: S. Maria di Galeria, Isola Farnese and Formello
A Walk to Malborghetto

See my Home Page on Baroque Rome or my Home Page on Rome in the footsteps of an XVIIIth century traveller.