The warrior goddess of Falerii

The warrior goddess of Falerii.
An exhibition between archaeology, archives and comics at the Archaeological Museum of the Agro Falisco

On May 26, at 5 p.m. at the Archaeological Museum of Agro Falisco (Forte Sangallo) in Civita Castellana, the exhibition, "The Warrior Goddess of Falerii. The temple of Celle from archives to comics," the result of a research and enhancement project conducted in collaboration between the Falerii Project team, active at the Department of Sciences of Antiquity of the Sapienza University of Rome, the Lazio Regional Museums Directorate, the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the province of Viterbo and southern Etruria, the Municipality of Civita Castellana and the Istituto di Istruzione Superiore U. Midossi of Civita Castellana (Liceo Linguistico, Nepi site, Istituto Tecnico of Civita Castellana and Liceo Artistico, Vignanello site).

The discovery of the temple at Celle in Civita Castellana-the ancient Falerii-dates back to the late 19th century. At the time, the clamor over the discovery was strong because of the monumentality of the structures and the consistency of the findings. The temple was immediately put in connection with that of Juno Curite, which ancient sources tell us about, in particular mentioned by the Latin poet Ovid in Amores (III, 13). It was, moreover, according to scholars, the first example of an Etruscan-Italic temple brought to light. The rich architectural terracottas immediately became part of the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome, where they are still partly on display.

The monument was then investigated again several times during the 1930s and 1970s. Lacking, to date, was a comprehensive view of all these investigations that would lead to its full understanding.

The exhibition, through a multi-layered narrative path, will present, for the first time to the public, the intricate events related to the discovery and rediscovery of the temple building, over the course of more than a century: a long page of micro-history, straddling local and national events, in which alongside state officials engaged in the protection of cultural heritage appear entrepreneurs intent on the construction of the Civita Castellana-Viterbo railway line and prominent cultural figures of the time such as, for example, Luciano De Feo, Director of the International Institute for Educational Cinematography in the 1930s and who also participated in the birth of the Venice Film Festival.

The exhibition, in which a tactile path with braille panels will also be included, will be an opportunity to present to the public the reconstruction of the monumental temple, one of the largest known to date in Etruria, with an area of 1008 square meters and which stood on a base of 1400 square meters.

Finally, the visitor will experience an immersive experience, straddling the narrative of antiquity and contemporary reworking, the result of a PCTO with the Ulderico Midossi Institute of Higher Education, Liceo Artistico (Audiovisual and Multimedia Address) and Istituto Tecnico (Computer Address). In fact, the students, guided by the teachers and archaeologists of the Falerii Project, have created a narrative journey in which archaeological data, classical sources, contemporary landscape reality, the digital world and comics have been skillfully blended. The exhibition will be accompanied by a trilingual educational apparatus (in English, French and Spanish), also the work of students from another Midossi articulation: the Liceo Linguistico di Nepi.

The exhibition will be open to the public until September 15, 2023, and can be visited Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.