# Saepinum: free right now, €10 in normal times > Entry to the Roman town of Altilia-Saepinum has been free since March 1, 2026 while work goes on. The ordinary price is €10 and it opens at 8:15 am. URL: https://myitalia.it/attractions/saepinum Last updated: 2026-09-02 Entry to the Roman town of Altilia-Saepinum has been free since March 1, 2026 because work is under way; the ordinary price is €10 full and €2 reduced. ## Free, and dated, and temporary Since March 1, 2026 the site has admitted visitors at no charge while work is carried out. That is a decision by the operator, the Parco archeologico di Sepino, and it has no announced end. The ordinary tariff behind it is €10 full and €2 for ages 18 to 25, with under-18s free and an annual card at €20. Prices are in euros. Check parcosepino.it before you set off. Free entry is by definition provisional, and this page carries a date on it for exactly that reason. ## 8:15 am to 7:15 pm, seven days The gates are open 8:15 am to 7:15 pm every day of the week, with last entry 30 minutes before closing (08:15 to 19:15 on Italian signs). An eleven-hour day with no weekly closure is unusual for an Italian archaeological site. It is also the practical answer to Molise's transport problem: if you have to reach Sepino by road, you are not fighting a 1:30 pm shutdown. The address is C.da Altilia 1, SP82, 86017 Sepino, in the province of Campobasso. ## A Roman town, from 293 BC Rome took this area in 293 BC, during the third Samnite war, and the town that followed is the one you walk through: forum, basilica, theater, walls and towers, and 4 gates, among them Porta Bojano and Porta Terravecchia. The scale is domestic rather than imperial, which is the point. This is a provincial Roman town with its street plan intact and farm buildings still standing inside the walls. ## A droving road runs through it The Pescasseroli to Candela tratturo, 1 of the great grass roads of transhumance, crosses the archaeological area itself. That crossing is why the town exists. Saepinum was founded where the tratturo met the road coming down from the Matese massif towards the plain of the Tammaro, and the two axes set the shape of the streets. The lengths of the Pescasseroli to Candela and Celano to Foggia tratturi are not verified on an official source, so no kilometer figure appears here. ## Transhumance: UNESCO 2019, extended 2023 Transhumance went onto the UNESCO representative list of intangible cultural heritage in 2019, on a joint nomination by Italy, Austria and Greece, and was extended in 2023 to 10 states. The extended file, reference 01964 at session 18.COM, covers Albania, Andorra, Austria, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania and Spain. It recognizes both the horizontal form, across lowlands, and the vertical form of mountain areas. Worth being straight about: none of the official pages names Molise or counts its tratturi, so the common claim that the region holds the densest surviving network is not sourced. ## Two official pages, two different prices 2 government sources disagree on the price here: cultura.gov.it lists €10, while the regional museums directorate for Molise lists entry as free. The contradiction resolves at the operator's own site, which explains that free entry is temporary, granted from March 1, 2026 because of the works, and prints the ordinary €10 and €2 tariff alongside it. That is how a discrepancy gets fixed: not by picking the friendlier number, but by finding the page that explains both. For the region, see [Molise](/regions/molise). ## FAQ ### Is Saepinum free to enter? Yes, temporarily. Entry has been free since March 1, 2026 because work is under way on the site. The ordinary tariff is €10 full and €2 reduced for ages 18 to 25, and it will come back when the work ends. ### What are the opening hours at Saepinum? 8:15 am to 7:15 pm every day, with last entry 30 minutes before closing (08:15 to 19:15 on Italian signs). The address is C.da Altilia 1, on the SP82 at 86017 Sepino, in the province of Campobasso. ### What is there to see at Saepinum? A Roman town you can walk through: the forum, the basilica, the theater, the walls with their towers, and 4 city gates including Porta Bojano and Porta Terravecchia. Rome took the area in 293 BC, in the third Samnite war. ### What is a tratturo, and why does one cross Saepinum? A tratturo is a wide grass droving road used for transhumance. The Pescasseroli to Candela route runs straight through the archaeological area: the Roman town was founded where it met the road from the Matese massif, and those 2 axes set its street plan. ### Is transhumance a UNESCO site? It is on the UNESCO representative list of intangible cultural heritage, inscribed in 2019 on a joint Italian, Austrian and Greek nomination, and extended in 2023 to 10 states. In Italy it moved along the tratturi. ## Sources | Fact | Source | Confidence | Valid until | |---|---|---|---| | L'area archeologica romana di Altilia-Saepinum a Sepino e aperta tutti i giorni 8:15-19:15 e dal 1° marzo 2026 l'ingresso e temporaneamente gratuito per lavori in corso (tariffa ordinaria 10 euro intero, 2 euro ridotto) | [Parco archeologico di Sepino - Ministero della Cultura](https://www.parcosepino.it/); [Direzione regionale musei nazionali Molise - Ministero della Cultura](https://www.musei.molise.beniculturali.it/musei/area-archeologica-di-altilia-saepinum); [Ministero della Cultura](https://cultura.gov.it/luogo/parco-archeologico-di-sepino-area-archeologica-di-altilia-saepinum) | high | 2027-03-31 | | Il tratturo Pescasseroli-Candela, una delle grandi vie erbose della transumanza, attraversa l'area archeologica romana di Altilia-Saepinum a Sepino: la citta romana nacque proprio all'incrocio fra il tratturo e la strada dal Matese verso la piana del Tammaro | [Direzione regionale musei nazionali Molise - Ministero della Cultura](https://www.musei.molise.beniculturali.it/musei/area-archeologica-di-altilia-saepinum) | medium | 2099-12-31 | | La transumanza e iscritta dal 2019 nella Lista rappresentativa del patrimonio culturale immateriale UNESCO su candidatura di Italia, Austria e Grecia, ed e stata estesa nel 2023 a dieci Stati: in Italia si pratica lungo i tratturi, di cui il Molise conserva la rete piu estesa | [Commissione Nazionale Italiana per l'UNESCO](https://www.unesco.it/it/iniziative-dellunesco/patrimonio-culturale-immateriale/la-transumanza/); [Ministero della Cultura - Ufficio UNESCO](https://unesco.cultura.gov.it/projects/transumanza/); [UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage](https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/01470) | high | 2029-12-31 | ## Image https://media.myitalia.it/media/poi.saepinum.1600.jpg Author: Stefania Carano. License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saepinum_Romana.JPG ## Other languages - it: https://myitalia.it/it/attrazioni/saepinum.md - es: https://myitalia.it/es/atracciones/saepinum.md - fr: https://myitalia.it/fr/attractions/saepinum.md - de: https://myitalia.it/de/sehenswuerdigkeiten/saepinum.md