The sanctuary of Juno Sospita was one of the most well-known, rich and well-attended in the ancient world and the cult most certainly originated among the Achaeans.

The remains of the temple are located on the San Lorenzo Hill, inside the Differently Able Day Care Centre of the Lanuvio District (previously a Salesian Institute).

The first excavations at the beginning of last century brought to light at least three architecturally distinct building stages: evidence for the first, which dates from the second half of the 7th C. to the first half of the 6th C. BC., was provided by a small wall in yellow tufa rock (now no longer visible) which ran in a south-westerly direction and led to the belief that there must have been an archaic temple.

Subsequently, at the end of the 6th C., a large west-facing Tuscan style temple was built.

The next reconstruction of the temple took place after the conquest of Lanuvio by the Romans, who introduced a new architectural style and it was at this time that the Temple reached its maximum splendour in terms of importance, notoriety and wealth.

A subsequent and last building stage involved the complete restoration of the entire site and dates back to Hadrian’s day (117 – 138 AD.).

The Sanctuary was almost completely raised to the ground in the 5th C. AD and then forgotten in the folds of time, until last century.