How Anagni was built and evolved over time

Anagni is built in layers on a single hill, and each layer kept the one beneath it.

The base is Hernician. The town was located on the acropolis — the north-eastern zone that takes in the cathedral, the Tufoli gate and Piazza Dante — and was partially defended by walls in opus quasi-quadratum, the almost-squared masonry of the pre-Roman Latian towns.

The Romans built on top of that. Under Roman domination the town expanded, and the so-called Servian walls were modified at the beginning of the third century BC. Anagni still stands inside its Roman boundary walls today.

The religious centre was simply converted. The city was a seat of temples and sanctuaries, including the temple of Ceres — and the cathedral was built on it.

The medieval town is what a visitor sees: Anagni still maintains the appearance of a small medieval hill town at 424 metres, with small twisting streets and steep lanes, from the period of extraordinary splendour under the Caetani when it reached about fifty thousand people.

And the last layer is the one in the valley: a large industrial district occupying the plain entirely, built well away from all of it.