Tomb of Caecilia Metella, Appian Way

The mausoleum of Caecilia Metella on the Via Appia Antica dates from the Augustan period, roughly between 30 and 10 BC. Caecilia Metella was the daughter of the consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus and probably the daughter-in-law of Licinius Crassus. A cylinder about 11 m high, clad in travertine, rises from a square base, topped by a marble frieze of garlands and ox skulls (bucrania). These gave the area its name, "Capo di Bove".

In the early 14th century the Caetani family incorporated the tomb as the main tower of their fortification, the Castrum Caetani; the Ghibelline battlements date from this conversion. The associated church of San Nicola a Capo di Bove is regarded as the only evidence of Cistercian Gothic at this spot. In the Caetani palace the Museum of the Via Appia displays statues, sarcophagi and inscriptions from tombs in the area. The burial chamber is about 6.5 m across and open to the sky through an oculus.

A little further along the Via Appia Antica (no. 222) lies the Capo di Bove site, with mosaics and the remains of a Roman villa with a bath complex, discovered when a swimming pool was being dug. Allow about one to two hours for the mausoleum and museum; if you then follow the Via Appia, you will need considerably longer.