Sutri stands on a high tuff outcrop overlooking the Via Cassia, between the Cimini and Sabatini mountains.
Known as "the door of Etruria", it represented over the centuries one of the main Etruscan bulwarks against the Roman advance.
Centuries later it became an important passage for goods and pilgrims to the Middle Ages and beyond, when the city became the first nucleus of the Papal States' possessions.
The first human settlement on the territory of Sutri date back to prehistoric times, while the numerous tombs discovered in the area are still evidence of the presence of Falisci and Etruscans in the city area.
The Etruscan necropolis, the Roman amphitheater, the medieval walls, the Romanesque cathedral are just some of the historical evidence traceable on its territory.
After the fall of Veii the last obstacle to the invasion of Etruria Sutri was finally conquered in 383 A.C. by the Romans.
Sutri later was involved in the struggles between the Byzantines and the Lombards, and in 728 the Lombard king offered it as a gift to the Pope, marking the beginning of the temporal power of the Church, the first step towards the building of the Stateof the Church.
A Legend states that, in the ninth century, Berta, sister of Charlemagne, direct to Rome, stopped in Sutri where she bore Orlando (or Rolando), later recognized as the champion of France and starred in numerous subsequent chivalrous works.
In the eleventh century took place in Sutri a Council, called by Emperor, who put an end to the schism by the election of a single Pope recognized in the figure of Clement II.
Sutri in feudal times was the center of the struggle between the Guelphs and Ghibellines which culminated with the fire that destroyed the old town, set by Nicholas Fortinbras, in 1433. This event, along with the movement of commercial traffic on the Via Cimina, enhanced by the Farnese from Ronciglione, marked the decline of Sutri.
In the eighteenth century Sutri was conquered by French troops and united to Ronciglione, only to be returned to the State of the Church during the Restoration.
