Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia site features

The sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia occupies six vast terraces at Palestrina, 35 km east of Rome. They rest on gigantic masonry substructures and are connected to each other by grand staircases, rising one above the other up the hill, and the whole thing was designed to be seen: from a great part of Latium, from Rome, and even from the sea.

Climbing it

The two lowest terraces, just south of the via del Borgo, linked the forum of the town to the sanctuary above and were full of water. On the upper of the two are fountains imitating natural caves, from the end of the third to the beginning of the second century BC and the oldest examples of the kind in Italy; the lower, held up by a wall of polygonal masonry, had another nymphaeum set inside an artificial cave, perhaps surrounded by a sacred wood.

Higher up is the terrace of the hemicycles, which incorporates two columned exedrae and was one of the central places of cult. In front of the right-hand exedra a well is still preserved, and it may be the one where, according to Cicero, the Praenestine nobleman Numerius Suffucius found the sortes -- the wooden tablets used to foretell the future.

The great terrace

Above that is the Cortina terrace, with porticoes on three sides, leading up to the cavea of the theatre, itself crowned with porticoes. Along the northern end of the Cortina, underneath the theatre stairway and forming part of its substructure, runs a cryptoporticus: a barrel-vaulted passage on six supporting arches that linked the two wings of Corinthian columns flanking the terrace. Its mosaic floor survives in part, made of irregular tesserae alternating with chips of polychrome stone. On the outside of the supporting arches are Ionic half-columns, and two large niches stood at the far ends of six arches that project slightly from the portico front. Those niches were not joined to the cryptoporticus behind them: water fell from their vaults, and traces of the piping are still visible.

The top

The small circular temple that crowned the sanctuary is today incorporated into the Palazzo Colonna Barberini. It held the gilded bronze statue of Fortuna, shown as a young warrior.

The six terraces

Resting on gigantic masonry substructures and joined by grand staircases, rising one above another up the hill. Probably by far the largest Roman sanctuary, and built to be visible from much of Latium, from Rome and from the sea.

The cryptoporticus

A barrel-vaulted passage on six arches beneath the theatre stairway, part of the substructure and integral to the sanctuary, linking the two wings of Corinthian columns around the Cortina terrace. Its surviving mosaic floor is scutulatum -- irregular tesserae alternating with chips of polychrome stone. Inscriptions here record a restoration carried out by two local magistrates in Sullan times.

The waterfall niches

Two large niches at the ends of six slightly projecting arches on the portico front. They look like part of the cryptoporticus and are not joined to it: water fell from their vaults, and the piping that fed them has left traces still visible.

The well of the sortes

In front of the right-hand exedra on the terrace of the hemicycles. It may be the well where, according to Cicero, the Praenestine nobleman Numerius Suffucius found the sortes, the wooden tablets by which the oracle was worked.

The cave fountains

Late 3rd to early 2nd century B.C. Fountains imitating natural caves on the upper of the two lowest terraces -- the oldest examples of the kind in Italy, and the beginning of a device Italian gardens would still be using eighteen centuries later.

The round temple

The small circular temple that topped the sanctuary, now incorporated into the Palazzo Colonna Barberini. It housed the gilded bronze statue of Fortuna, represented as a young warrior.

The fifteenth-century cistern

In the 15th century the supporting arches of the cryptoporticus were bricked up and the passage turned into a cistern -- which is why there is a well in the theatre today.