The best walks and hikes around Sutri

There are a few shops in the city center and a lot of very narrow streets 🤣 If you're nearby you can drive through.

Capranica is a village in Tuscia, built on a tuff cliff between the Cimini Mountains and the Mignone River valley. Its origins are Etruscan, but the center we see today retains its medieval charm, with narrow streets, arches, ancient gates, and evocative churches such as that of Santa Maria Maddalena. Hazelnut groves, olive groves, and woods extend all around, creating a distinctive landscape. It's a pleasant stop on the Via Francigena, where history and nature meet in an authentic and welcoming atmosphere.

In 1207 Innocent III consecrated the Ancient Cathedral of S. Maria Assunta (already enlarged by Pope Sergius III in 908) whose works lasted for about fifty years. For the occasion he brought as a gift to the city the beautiful panel of the Byzantine Christ still on display. At least another eight hundred years must be added to the eight hundred years of history considering that Sutri was one of the first episcopal seats in the world (465 AD first bishop St. Eusebius). Today it is possible to admire in all its splendor the Romanesque bell tower and the Cosmatesque floor. The visitor passionate about the sacred will not miss the beauty of the Crypt believed by some scholars to even date back to the Lombard era. (c) https://www.parchilazio.it/sutri-schede-524-cattedrale_di_santa_maria_assunta

The church of San Rocco is a church in Sutri, in the small square of San Rocco, in the old town... It is located near Porta Vecchia or Franceta, so called by the Franks as the pilgrims of the Francigena who passed through from the north towards Rome were called. It is located next to what was once the hospital of Sutri and which is now home to the city museum. In this church was the seat of the brotherhood of St. Martin of Tours" which had arrived from the ancient Vicus which was located towards Monterosi in a place still called San Martino today. Later the church, remembered in an apostolic visit of 1574 was destroyed and rebuilt as evidenced by the date carved on the architrave which cites the year 1608. On that date it also hosted the brotherhood of San Rocco, which then gave its name to the building, which had been forced to abandon its headquarters, of the Church of the Madonna del Carmine in the Monte Bono area held by the Carmelites because it was in a serious state of decay, even if later in the years of the 18th century a solemn votive feast was held there in memory of the liberation from the plague. It is also believed that San Rocco (who was a French pilgrim and miracle worker, venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and patron of numerous cities and towns, and also the most invoked saint, from the Middle Ages onwards, as a protector from the terrible scourge of the plague,) coming from Acquapendente on his journey to Rome stopped like many pilgrims of the Francigena before reaching Rome and, according to the new chronology, between 1367 and 1368. The church has a simple façade with a sloping roof and an entrance portal with a peperino architrave. The painting on the altar depicts the Virgin with Child, San Rocco and S. Martino, the patrons of the two confraternities that were later dissolved. and, S. Sebastiano executed by Giov. de Bonis, Rome, 1860. A restoration project was recently carried out. The intervention consisted of lining a border that was completely detached from the frame; fixing the pictorial film and removing surface deposits, which allowed the visibility of the work to be restored. The church is entrusted to the care of the Nuova Società di Sant'Antonio Abate. . " (c) http://www.parrocchiasutri.org/chiese/sanrocco.html

Built by order of Innocent XIII, it mirrors the Tower of the Winds of the Quirinale Palace, erected in 1723 by the same Pope. It would seem that the Sutrina Tower is a year older than the one on the Quirinale, almost as if the Pope wanted to do a dress rehearsal here. It is located above a Roman arch from the Republican era. (c) https://comune.sutri.vt.it/vivere-il-comune/luoghi/la-torre-dellorologio/

The ancient church with its adjoining convent was founded by Saint Francis himself in 1222 and dedicated to Saint Angelo. Saint Anthony of Padua also lived in the convent and for a year, during his wanderings around Italy, he held the position of master of novices. The church, after decades of closure due to damage from the bombings of the Second World War, has undergone a long restoration project and has been returned to the faithful and tourists. The architectural elements of the Romanesque style are interesting, such as the ribbed cross vault, the beams of the central nave, the high altar and the typical bell gable. The church of Saint Francis seems to have been founded in 1222 by the saint himself, and then dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel; in the convent that was attached to it, now demolished, according to tradition Saint Anthony of Padua also lived and held the position of master of novices for a year. the church, closed for many years due to structural damage suffered during the Second World War, has undergone extensive restoration work and is now open to the public again. Built in Romanesque style with a small bell gable, it has a cross-vaulted roof with ribs inside, and numerous sixteenth-century additions. A painting depicting San Francesco da Paola dating back to the seventeenth century was kept here, and which has now been moved to the museum of the patrimonium of Sutri. (c) https://comune.sutri.vt.it/vivere-il-comune/luoghi/chiesa-san-francesco/

Piazza Cavour is really small and is surrounded by many beautiful buildings with simple but elegant decorations. In the center, a medium-sized fountain in peperino. It is of the so-called "spindle" model, with a structure in the middle decorated with leaves and flowers in relief on the tip and four straws that start from the mouth of a leonine figure. It is a "copy" fountain, since it is exactly the same as the ancient one from the 13th century that is in Piazza della Morte in Viterbo, the "capital" of Tuscia. In fact, this one in Sutri was built in the 1930s by the master Alfredo Maggini. Let's say that fountains of this kind, which are also found in other centers in the area, are a bit of a "brand" of belonging to the same culture. Silent and peaceful, the square-with-fountain is ideal for a good coffee break in the nearby bar.

Further information about Maerten de Vos (for the Flemish or art lovers :-): Maerten de Vos, variations Ma(a)rten (1531 or 1532 - 3 December 1603) was a Southern Netherlandish painter. Like his teacher Frans Floris, Maerten de Vos also spent several years in Italy, which is noticeable in his style and use of colour. He stayed in Rome from around 1552. He was one of the favourite painters in Antwerp for the refurbishment of the churches after the Beeldenstorm. His work shows the influence of Jacopo Tintoretto. Works by Maerten de Vos hang in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Cathedral of Antwerp, the Abbey of Grimbergen and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, among others. (c) https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maerten_de_Vos