Sanctuary of Demeter at Macchia delle Valli

In the heart of the Macchia delle Valli municipal woods, in the territory of Vetralla, stands one of the most fascinating rock sanctuaries of southern Etruria. The site was brought to light in May-June 2006 by the Superintendency for Archaeological Heritage of Southern Etruria, after the Carabinieri reported illegal excavations that were damaging the votive deposits.

Its extra-urban location relative to the known Etruscan-Roman settlements in the Vetralla area qualifies it as a rural sanctuary, closely linked to the presence of a water spring—no coincidence, as therapeutic and propitiatory virtues were attributed to water. Not far from the site are a Roman cistern, a decommissioned peperino quarry, and a road carved into the rock, evidence of an ancient landscape still visible in the territory.

The sanctuary complex is divided into rock-cut rooms carved into the stone, outdoor cult areas, and a small cella built from peperino slabs, featuring a gabled roof and tympanums decorated with a raised disk. Inside the cella, a monolithic bench held the terracotta cult statue (3rd century BC), depicting a goddess enthroned with a patera umbilicata in her right hand and, likely, a bunch of grain in her left. The deity has been identified with the Greek Demeter, comparable to the Etruscan Vei and the Roman Ceres.

Next to the cella, a natural cave partially worked by man served as a votive deposit. Inside, ceramic fragments, Etruscan votives, and a second opening connecting it to the cella through an antecella with a peperino base were recovered. Among the most significant finds: a small altar with a bronze coin—an As of Domitian—interpreted as the final offering before the sanctuary was abandoned between the end of the 1st and the beginning of the 2nd century AD. The anatomical votives found confirm the chthonic and therapeutic nature of the cult, linked to fertility and healing.

The sanctuary appears to have been frequented for a chronological span of about five centuries, from the end of the 4th century BC until the beginning of the 2nd century AD.