Minturno
Minturno is a city in the southern
Lazio,
Italy, situated on the north west bank of the
Liris with a suburb on the opposite bank 11 miles from its mouth, at the point where the
Via Appia crossed it by the bridge called
Pons Tiretius.
It has a station on the
Rome-
Naples main railway line.
The ancient
Minturnae was one of the three towns of the Ausoni which made war against
Rome in
314 BC, the other two being called Ausona (modern
Sessa Aurunca) and
Vescia; and the Via Appia was made two years later.
It became a colony in
295 BC.
In
88 BC Marius in his flight from
Sulla hid himself in the marshes of Minturnae.
The city was probably destroyed again in
883 by the
Saracens, who in the following years held the circumstant plain. Its low site was increasingly abandoned by the population in favour of that of the modern town of
Minturno (known as
Traetto until the
19th century), 140 m above sea-level. Much of the Minturnesi
They were ousted by the Catholic league after the
Battle of Garigliano (
915), and Minturnae passed to
Gaeta. Two years later, however, it was again ravaged by the
Magyars. In
1058 it was partly acquired by the
Abbey of Montecassino, but soon later was conquered by the
Normans.
In the
13th century it went to Richard V dell'Aquila, duchy of Gaeta. Subsequently it was a Caetani possession, and later assigned by
Charles VIII of France to his general
Prospero Colonna. It was a Carafa fief until
1806, and was integrated in the
Kingdom of Italy on
October 30,
1861.
Minturno was part of the
Gustav Line during the
Second World War, and suffered heavy bombings.
Roman remains
The Roman ruins consist of an
amphitheatre (now almost entirely demolished, but better preserved in the
18th century), a
theatre in
opus reticulatum, and a very fine
aqueduct in
opus reticulatum, the quoins of which are of various colours arranged in patterns to produce a decorative effect. There is also a statue commonly called of
Sepeone (
Scipio), from the Late Empire age.
The
Thermae of Suio, some kilometers outside the city, are known since very ancient times, as they are cited by both
Pliny the Elder and
Lucanus. They are still exploited. The place were the site of a
battle between
France and
Spain in
1503.
Close to the mouth of the river was the sacred grove of the Italic goddess
Marica.
Other sights
*The
Baronal Castle housed famous figures such as
St. Thomas Aquinas,
Isabella Colonna and
Giulia Gonzaga*The church of
St. Francis, built around 1320 by Roffredo III Caetani, nephew of
Pope Boniface VIII*The church of
Annunziata (c. 1300), damaged by the
Turks pirates in
1552, by the French-Polish troops in
1799 and by a fire in
1888. In
1930 a restoration removed all the Baroque additions and showed the presence of ancient frescoes.
*The church of
St. Peter (9th-12th centuries). The façade is preceded by a staircase and a porch with 4 arcades (14th century). The interior has a nave and two aisles divided by tall columns with ogival arcs. The right aisle houses the notable Baroque Sacrament Chapel (
1587), decorated with polychrome marbles. Other artpcieces include a candelabre (
1264) with mosaic decoration, and the Pergagum, with antique columns and 13th century mosaics. It has a three-floor belfry.
The fraction of Scauri, on the
Gulf of Gaeta, takes its name from the Roman
consul Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, who had a sumptuous villa here. It has some notable ancient watchtowers, including the
Torre Saracena, at the mouth of the river Garigliano, erected between
961 and
981, commemorates a victory gained by
Pope John X and his allies over the Saracens in
915 (see
battle of Garigliano). It is built of
Roman materials from Minturnae, including several inscriptions and sculptures.
Antonio Sebastiano Minturno (1559 in Ugento, 1565 in Cotrone) was a polished Italian writer and poet.
In the early Twentieth century, many residents of Minturno and the villages around it emigrated to
Stamford,
Connecticut, in the United States. A club for Minturnese immigrants, the Minturno Social Club, was founded in Stamford.
There is also a Minturno social club in the Woodbridge section of Toronto, Canada.
Michael Fedele, a former member of the Connecticut House of Representatives and the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Connecticut in the 2006 elections, was born in Minturno in 1955.
