Parco archeologico di Abellinum

Archaeological park on the Civita hill in Atripalda, with walls, baths, an amphitheatre and a large domus of the ancient Roman colony of Abellinum.

Opening hoursFree admission

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About the museum

The Abellinum archaeological park occupies the Civita plateau, north-west of Atripalda, on the left bank of the Sabato river. Before the Roman conquest the area was inhabited by the Irpini, a Samnite people; the hill, already fortified in Samnite times, has yielded votive material suggesting a sacred area.

In Roman times the actual colony took shape and reached its greatest splendour in the Augustan age, with the construction of the city walls, public buildings – including the amphitheatre and the baths – and the great aqueduct with its springs at Serino. After the middle of the 4th century AD the sources become scarce and the city was gradually abandoned, until the Lombard conquest of the 7th century.

The site, covering about 25 hectares, is enclosed by walls around two kilometres long that date to the late Republican period. On the eastern side the forum and the baths can be recognised; the so-called Torre degli Orefici (Goldsmiths’ Tower) rests on the calidarium of the baths. In the north-east a domus of Hellenistic-Pompeian type, about 2,500 square metres in size, has been excavated. Many of the finds from these excavations are kept in the Palazzo della Dogana dei Grani in Atripalda.

Highlights

Walls of about 2 km with circular towers
Baths complex with the Torre degli Orefici
Domus of Hellenistic-Pompeian type of about 2,500 m²
Remains of the forum and the amphitheatre
Finds from the excavations, kept in the Palazzo della Dogana dei Grani

Permanent exhibition

Percorso nel parco archeologico di Abellinum – Visit to the archaeological area with the city walls, the forum, the baths and the Hellenistic-Pompeian domus.

Visitors per year: approx. 2,087