Ancient Praeneste built something Italy had never seen: the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, second century BC, a sacred mountain of Hellenistic terraces on which the entire old town now rests. At the top, the Colonna Barberini palace houses the archaeological museum and the celebrated Nile mosaic, an absolute masterpiece of ancient art.
Around 1525 the town gave birth to Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the reformer of sacred polyphony who carried its name through the centuries. This Lazio centre of 20,498 residents, on the Via Prenestina that descends from Praeneste, binds monumental antiquity and music like few places on earth.
Near Palestrina
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
