Tuscania

A general description of Tuscania

Web site featuring photo tours of the center of Tuscania and some of its churches

In the small city of Tuscania, north of Rome, many houses in the medieval center were damaged by an earthquake, so the government moved people temporarily to newer housing west of the town center. After their original houses had been repaired, many of the owners preferred to stay in the more comfortable newer houses, and sold their old ones for a profit, often to weekenders from Rome. Did they sin against some commandment? Did the medieval center then become a theme park?

Until recently people parked cars in the cloister of Tuscania's medieval monastery. Not out in the middle, which was used for other storage, but right under the arcades there were cars and carriages. People lived in apartments made out of the old monastic cells. Now it's all been restored and has become a museum. While the monastery was being lived in, its stone and stucco were in bad shape, but now that it is a museum and a tourist attraction, a guide from the town said that the building looks "beautiful" in its smooth perfection. What is the monastery's "traditional use"?

In the crypt of the medieval church outside the walls of Tuscania there stand twenty-eight columns taken from Roman temples. There are more such columns up in the nave. Why do some people esteem such medieval reuse while condemning contemporary recombinations of old and new?

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