The basilica church of Saint Peter was built on the hill in Tuscania where once stood the Etruscan Acropolis and the fortified centre of the Roman city.
The church, then, was built on an existing eighth-century building shortly after the donation of the territory from Charlemagne to Pope Hadrian I.
Architecturally, the church is the point of passage from the early Christian to Romanesque forms.
Then it was further modified in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century when the two bays and the current façade were rebuilt.
Its grandeur and its location make it one of the most interesting buildings of the Middle Ages. T
he facade sticks out in the middle and has a large rose window surrounded by many decorative elements.
The main portal is the work of a craftsman of the Roman marble cosmatesca school and is characterized by three reliefs and sculptures and mosaics on the side.
The interior is divided into three naves and the central one has a cosmatesco floor with geometric decorations.
Most of the paintings have been lost except for a series of frescoes that refer to the life of St. Peter, dating from the late eleventh century.
The crypt has nine naves with twenty-eight different columns, almost all from Roman and early medieval buildings, dating from the twelfth century.
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