Itri

City of Itri

Built in Roman times as a post office along the Via Appia, it grew during the empire and declined with it. In the Middle Ages it was an autonomous duchy under Count Leone d’Itri, then it was incorporated into that of Gaeta and later sold to the Dell’Aquila, counts of Fondi. In 1346 Nicolò I Caetani defeated the army of Giovanna I of Anjou , queen of Naples, and in 1503 Consalvo di Cordova won the victory over the French of the Duke of Nemours. During the Napoleonic wars it was the scene of the fierce anti-French resistance of Fra ‘Diavolo and, shortly thereafter, of the swan song of the Bourbon troops, at the time of the unification of Italy. During the Second World War, being placed on the rear of the Gustav line, it was razed to the ground by the allies. The toponym, mentioned in the Catalogus Baronum (1150-1168), has an obscure etymology: according to some it derives from the Latin term ITER, ‘journey’, according to others it refers to the cult of the god Mithras; another hypothesis makes it derive, by assonance, from the southern dialectal zoonym which indicates the ‘otter’. Despite the bombings of the Second World War, it preserves valuable architectural works, such as the suggestive castle (11th-13th centuries), equipped with a powerful circular keep, the parish church of Sant’Angelo, in Romanesque-Gothic style, and the bell tower of the disappeared church of Santa Maria Maggiore (13th century).