It is incorporated into the cellars of the seventeenth-century Bourbon-Sorbello palace located at the eastern end of Piazza Danti, at the foot of the highest part of the center of Perugia, called Monte di Porta Sole, which in ancient times corresponded to the city’s acropolis.
It represents the most monumental of the city’s water infrastructures. Built in the Etruscan era with the dual function of a well and a cistern, it was placed along the main east–west road axis, which connected the Arch of the Lilies to Porta San Luca. Its visit is essentially complemented by that of the city walls, which offer further evidence of the urban development reached by Perugia in the Etruscan period.
Made with the same travertine as the city walls, it is carved into the so-called “almond-shaped block,” a typical conglomerate of the city. It consists of a cylindrical shaft over 30 meters deep, with a maximum diameter of 5.60 meters, which narrows to a funnel in the lower section. It features a cover made up of two trusses, each consisting of four large travertine blocks, two horizontal and two oblique, supported by a central keystone. This system, which has close technical affinities with the cistern on Via Caporali located at the opposite end of the city, was used to support a pavement of travertine slabs in which the water drawing opening had to be made. The work, whose centrality and monumentality leave no doubt about its public purpose, is dated to the 3rd century BC, based on technical similarities found with the city walls.
The maximum calculated capacity amounts to 424,000 liters, making it the largest among the various wells and cisterns of the city, which were also in use until the construction of the first public aqueduct in the 13th century.
Information about Etruscan Well
Piazza Danti, 18
06121 Perugia (Perugia)
0755733669
info.cultura@comune.perugia.it
https://www.comune.perugia.it
Source: MIBACT
