The best walks and hikes around Sutri

There are a few shops in the city center and a lot of very narrow streets 🤣 If you're nearby you can drive through.

In 1207 Innocent III consecrated the Ancient Cathedral of S. Maria Assunta (already enlarged by Pope Sergius III in 908) whose works lasted for about fifty years. For the occasion he brought as a gift to the city the beautiful panel of the Byzantine Christ still on display. At least another eight hundred years must be added to the eight hundred years of history considering that Sutri was one of the first episcopal seats in the world (465 AD first bishop St. Eusebius). Today it is possible to admire in all its splendor the Romanesque bell tower and the Cosmatesque floor. The visitor passionate about the sacred will not miss the beauty of the Crypt believed by some scholars to even date back to the Lombard era. (c) https://www.parchilazio.it/sutri-schede-524-cattedrale_di_santa_maria_assunta

Built by order of Innocent XIII, it mirrors the Tower of the Winds of the Quirinale Palace, erected in 1723 by the same Pope. It would seem that the Sutrina Tower is a year older than the one on the Quirinale, almost as if the Pope wanted to do a dress rehearsal here. It is located above a Roman arch from the Republican era. (c) https://comune.sutri.vt.it/vivere-il-comune/luoghi/la-torre-dellorologio/

The ancient church with its adjoining convent was founded by Saint Francis himself in 1222 and dedicated to Saint Angelo. Saint Anthony of Padua also lived in the convent and for a year, during his wanderings around Italy, he held the position of master of novices. The church, after decades of closure due to damage from the bombings of the Second World War, has undergone a long restoration project and has been returned to the faithful and tourists. The architectural elements of the Romanesque style are interesting, such as the ribbed cross vault, the beams of the central nave, the high altar and the typical bell gable. The church of Saint Francis seems to have been founded in 1222 by the saint himself, and then dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel; in the convent that was attached to it, now demolished, according to tradition Saint Anthony of Padua also lived and held the position of master of novices for a year. the church, closed for many years due to structural damage suffered during the Second World War, has undergone extensive restoration work and is now open to the public again. Built in Romanesque style with a small bell gable, it has a cross-vaulted roof with ribs inside, and numerous sixteenth-century additions. A painting depicting San Francesco da Paola dating back to the seventeenth century was kept here, and which has now been moved to the museum of the patrimonium of Sutri. (c) https://comune.sutri.vt.it/vivere-il-comune/luoghi/chiesa-san-francesco/

Piazza Cavour is really small and is surrounded by many beautiful buildings with simple but elegant decorations. In the center, a medium-sized fountain in peperino. It is of the so-called "spindle" model, with a structure in the middle decorated with leaves and flowers in relief on the tip and four straws that start from the mouth of a leonine figure. It is a "copy" fountain, since it is exactly the same as the ancient one from the 13th century that is in Piazza della Morte in Viterbo, the "capital" of Tuscia. In fact, this one in Sutri was built in the 1930s by the master Alfredo Maggini. Let's say that fountains of this kind, which are also found in other centers in the area, are a bit of a "brand" of belonging to the same culture. Silent and peaceful, the square-with-fountain is ideal for a good coffee break in the nearby bar.

Further information about Maerten de Vos (for the Flemish or art lovers :-): Maerten de Vos, variations Ma(a)rten (1531 or 1532 - 3 December 1603) was a Southern Netherlandish painter. Like his teacher Frans Floris, Maerten de Vos also spent several years in Italy, which is noticeable in his style and use of colour. He stayed in Rome from around 1552. He was one of the favourite painters in Antwerp for the refurbishment of the churches after the Beeldenstorm. His work shows the influence of Jacopo Tintoretto. Works by Maerten de Vos hang in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Cathedral of Antwerp, the Abbey of Grimbergen and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, among others. (c) https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maerten_de_Vos

The church has a rectangular plan with a women's gallery for cloistered nuns, a choir and a wooden coffered ceiling. On the right side wall there is a 16th century painting depicting the "Supper at Bethany" attributed to the Flemish painter Maarten de Vos (Antwerp, 1532-Antwerp, 1603). On the outside it has a simple façade with a finely crafted wooden door set in a 16th century frame. The Carmelite monastery of the Holy Conception is annexed to the church, originally a small medieval castle donated in the first half of the 1400s by the Community of Carmelite friars, already present in Sutri, to the first nuns who professed vows under the Carmelite Rule. (c) https://unsic.it/comunicazione/sutri-viterbo-presidio-storico-sulla-via-cassia/

Villa Savorelli (15th-18th century) is the testimony of centuries of history that – from the Renaissance through the Baroque and up to the Romantic Age – have shaped architecture and nature in an evocative ensemble among the most important among the historic villas of the Tuscia Viterbese. Built on 3 floors, with a square plan, it is currently set up to host events and houses the headquarters of the Regional Park. The complex also includes the underlying Italian garden that preserves within it real plant monuments: laurel hedges and centuries-old boxwood specimens. The garden is divided into 3 panels, 2 of which depict the ancient coat of arms of the Savorelli family and the third, the oldest, between the Villa and the Church of the Madonna del Monte. The latter today presents a composite structure in which different architectural styles coexist. Born as a medieval church, originally with a rectangular plan, it was only transformed in 1725 with the opening of the apse, to give the structure a greater sense of perspective; with the consequent creation of the 2 side chapels, the positioning of columns leaning against the walls. The facade was also worked on, developed vertically according to the Borromini style, with 2 bell towers capable of making the church, erected on the highest point of the hill, a soaring building clearly visible from the city. The Savorelli compendium is completed with a forest of centuries-old holm oaks (Quercus ilex) set at different heights, already called the “Sacred Forest” for centuries, in reference to the ancient pagan belief that imagined woods and forests populated by nymphs, goblins and fauns, symbolic personifications of nature's eternal capacity for renewal. (c) https://www.retedimorestorichelazio.it/dimora/vt/sutri/villa-savorelli/