Soprintendenza Archeologica Toscana

The Tuscan
Archaeological
Service

The Florentine Territorial Area
Directed by Dr. M. C. Guidotti

H O M E

The tomb of La Mula, already known of in Renaissance times and rediscovered in 1820, was incorporated into what is today Villa Garbi Pecchioli at Quinto and converted into a cellar; this of course meant that it needed a series of structural alterations which included the elimination of the original "dromos" (corridor) that once led into it.

A flight of steps dating from the construction of the villa leads down to the final part of the "dromos", which is in a fairly good state of repair and covered with a flat roof made from great slabs of stone. The doorway into the funerary chamber is made from two great slabs of stone placed widthwise. The chamber is larger than that of the Montagnola tomb (it is over eight metres in diameter); the same technique has been used for the roof but here there is no central pilaster (thus creating an increase in the space, especially from the optical point of view). This "tholos", built towards the end of the 7th century B.C., is the largest pre-Roman designed cupola as yet known in Italy. It is difficult to calculate the original size of the tomb because of the villa being built on top of it. According to tradition, the tomb apparently contained many precious objects of gold, though their precise quantity and destination is unknown.