The walls of Volterra represent a feat of military engineering dating back to the Etruscan era and gradually modified over the centuries. The original walls, of which long stretches still survive, were built in the Etruscan age, around the 4th century B.C., and remained in use right throughout the early middle ages, until the Municipality of Volterra decided to erect a new defensive system, which would nonetheless encompass much of the original Etruscan walls.
