Volterra - Arco Etrusco

From the center of Volterra a stepped lane, Via Porta all'Arco (many alabaster workshops), runs southwest to the Arco Etrusco (Etruscan Arch), a gate in the ancient circuit of walls. The dressed stones flanking the gateway and the three much-weathered heads on the arch date from the fourth-third centuries B.C.; the arch itself was rebuilt in Roman times, and the masonry on either side of the gate is medieval. A similar gateway is depicted on an Etruscan ash-chest of the first century B.C. (No. 371) in the Museo Etrusco Guarnacci.

A commemorative tablet records that during the Second World War the people of Volterra prevented the gate from being blown up by German troops.