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Sutri is located around 50 kilometres north of Rome and about 30 kilometres south of Viterbo on the Italian SR2 route which once was the Via Cassia, which linked Rome with the provinces to the north of the capital. Approaching from a distance it cannot be missed as it is located at the top of a hill. As with many walled Italian towns there are parking spaces outside of the city walls, one of which I used to spend the night in my motorhome before making this film the following morning.
The whole comune of Sutri has only around 5,000 inhabitants, those living in the centre are much fewer. Nonetheless it has much to offer the visitor, above all ancient ruins of Roman and Etruscan origins as well as the medieval walls and structures.
As we can see from a modern mosaic in the main square, Sutri was in Latin Sutrium. In the early days of Rome, it changed hands various times between the Romans and Etruscans. The Romans left the town a temple to Mithras and an amphitheatre measuring 49 x 40 metres.
In the eigth century CE, the town came under the power of the Papacy. It must have been quite rich as jewellery from this time can be seen in the British Museum. Pope Gregory VI abdicated at Sutri on 20 December 1046, following the Synod of Sutri convened at the request of Emperor Henry III. Pope Eugene III fled here in 1146 and he must have liked it so much that when Pope Innocent IV also needed to escape Rome in 1244, he also came here. It was in the thirteenth century that the cathedral was completed.
In many films I mention that a town is only as old as the last fire. In the case of Sutri that was in 1433 during the wars between Guelphs and Ghibellines. After the fire the town became a backwater and much of what we can see today is from before this time.
For people visiting by motorhome, there is plenty of parking, the car park I used which can be seen in the film is to the south of the town on the Via Cassia, however there are other places too.
