- Claudio Bizzarri –
Bartolomeo in Piazza della Repubblica reveals another highly important element to be
considered in understanding the prospective urban grid of the ancient city. The remains
of the Early Christian church clearly ignore those of the precedent Etruscan settlement,^44
consisting of tufa platforms set next to cisterns and shafts for water, remains of dry-stone
masonry and stone paving. All these structures do not follow the lines of the present
fabric, connected to the medieval city, and are organized according to an axis a few
degrees off of the magnetic north. The same orientation appears in some of the remains
excavated in the courtyard of Palazzo Monaldeschi and also in some remains belonging
to an Etruscan house.^45 Davanzo attempted a reconstruction of the urban grid of Etruscan
Orvieto on the basis of an analysis of the layout of some of the extant directrices and
orientation of some monuments, and the result is quite interesting.^46 This is particularly
the case for the medieval quarter (Fig. 36.7), keeping in mind that the Etruscan city
probably stopped all correspondence with the area now known as Fontanasecca/Piazza
dei Montemarte, as Gamurrini^47 has previously indicated. A second complex of cuniculi
in the area corresponding to Piazza Ranieri (escalator cuniculi) supplies another important
element pertinent to a general evaluation. Located beneath Palazzo Gaddi, they also
consist of a main conduit and orthogonal branches. The fact that it lies not far from
the previously mentioned complex of Piazza Ranieri and that its orientation does not
correspond completely, indicates that the individual city blocks could develop according
Figure 36.7 The west side of the tufa plateau of Orvieto, Davanzo outlined some interesting
elements of the urban grid, in particular the dotted line in the left area located in the medieval quarter
(from Davanzo 2007).