Tarquinia painted tombs: what you see

What a visit is like

The tombs lie on the Monterozzi hill outside Tarquinia, a ridge about six kilometres long that runs parallel to the coast, between the sea and the plateau where the Etruscan city stood. You walk from tomb to tomb across the hillside. Each open tomb is reached down a long stairway, called a dromos, that goes below ground level. At the bottom, a transparent door lets you see the paintings while keeping the temperature and humidity steady inside. Each tomb is a separate descent, so allow time for the steps down and back up.

How many tombs, and how many are open

More than 6,000 tombs are known on the hill, most of them rock-cut chambers once covered by mounds. The earliest belong to the Iron Age, in the 9th century BC. About 200 carry paintings, which the park calls the most important group in the Mediterranean, and the habit of painting tombs runs from the 7th to the 2nd century BC. The park lists 22 painted tombs as open to visitors. A tomb can close for maintenance, and the park posts a notice, so an older trip report may not match your day. Many chambers copy the layout of Etruscan houses, which UNESCO cites as a unique testimony to a vanished culture.

The Tomb of the Leopards

This is the tomb most people have in mind. Couples recline at a banquet, with musicians and dancers on the walls beside them, and two facing leopards are painted above in the gable. Scholars read the scene as a funerary banquet, a celebration of life, and the tomb counts among the best preserved. It dates to the 5th century BC. Lions and leopards were probably rarely seen in Etruria, so the artists likely took the animals from Greek images. The tomb is on the park's open list, so you see it in place.

The Tomb of Hunting and Fishing

Another open tomb, and the one with the most open air in it. A boat sits on a painted sea among dolphins and birds, a youth dives from a cliff, and hunters aim slings at birds along the shore. Some scholars read the diver as a leap from this world to the next. Others point out that hunting and banqueting were typical pastimes of the Etruscan elite, and that the sea scenes show the coast near Tarquinia. The paintings date to the 6th century BC. One scholar suggests that the oversized hunter with a sling on the back wall may be a demon of death.

The Bulls and the Augurs

Two famous tombs aren't on the open list. The Tomb of the Bulls, from the 6th century BC, is among the earliest with complex frescoes. It shows Achilles lying in ambush for the young Trojan prince Troilus at a fountain, a bearded bull with a human head, and erotic scenes that are rare in Etruscan tombs. The Tomb of the Augurs shows funeral games. The tourism board places both in the Secondi Archi sector, while the sector open to the public is Calvario, so you'll know them from images.

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The Triclinium is in the museum

The Tomb of the Triclinium is a different case. Its banquet paintings, by a Greek artist working in Tarquinia in the early 5th century BC, were detached from the walls in the 1950s and 60s and rebuilt in the museum in Palazzo Vitelleschi. The museum holds several tombs treated this way, so a visit there shows you paintings the necropolis itself can't. Both the museum and the necropolis are managed by the same park, and the park's site ticket covers the two together.

Later tombs and the underworld

Not every painted tomb is a feast. The tombs of the late period add underworld scenes, with demons escorting the dead and processions of magistrates showing rank. The Blue Demons and Charuns tombs, both on the open list, belong to this group. If you can, visit one early tomb and one late one. The change from a lively banquet to a darker view of the afterlife is easy to see side by side. From the later 4th century BC, large chambers also held carved and painted sarcophagi.

When to go

The necropolis is open Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Mondays, with the odd announced exception. From late October to late March its hours are shorter than in summer, and the last entry is one hour before closing. The museum keeps the same hours all year. On weather-alert days the Monterozzi area can close as a precaution, and the park advises phoning to check. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month. Look at the park's hours page before you set out.

Stairs, children and accessibility

Every open tomb is reached down stairs, so expect plenty of steps. Visitors under 18 enter free. Since August 2023 the park has put QR codes along the path that open virtual tours of some tombs on your phone, and they show details you can't see from outside, which helps anyone who can't manage parts of the site. The park's audio guides, free online and on site, include 28 texts for the Tarquinia necropolis. Check which languages are live before you rely on them. The park's news page announces closures and special openings.

Getting there and around

The necropolis is on Via Ripagretta, outside the town. The museum, with the Triclinium paintings and the winged horses, is on Piazza Cavour in the old town. The tourism board links Trenitalia and Cotral timetables and maps of the old town and the necropolis, so use them to plan the trip between the two. Fiumicino airport and the port of Civitavecchia are both close to Tarquinia. Our ticket guide compares the official tickets with a private tour.

Read next: Necropolis of Tarquinia tickets

Who this isn't for

If you want to walk inside the painted chambers, this isn't the visit: you look in through transparent doors. If you hope to see every painted tomb, or the Bulls and the Augurs in person, you'll leave disappointed, because the open list holds 22 of about 200. If stairs are a problem, the virtual tours and the museum may suit you better than the descents. And if you're after a quick stop, remember that each tomb is a separate walk and a separate stairway.