Minturno

The municipal territory was the site of a settlement of the Ausonians , who, for having participated in the Samnite league against Rome (315 BC), was reduced to a colony of CIVIUM ROMANORUM (216 BC). The town prospered during the imperial period and decayed due to the invasions of the Lombards (6th century) and the progressive advance of the marshes; the few survivors founded a new settlement on the hills, which the popes equipped with defensive walls but which they were unable to prevent from being sacked and devastated by the Saracens (883); later it passed to the ipati (dukes) of Gaeta (9th century) and later to the Normans(11th century). Included in the possessions of the Dell’Aquila, counts of Fondi and Traetto (13th century), it was assigned to the Caetani (1297), the Colonna (1497) and the Carafa della Spina, who bought it in 1690. It was called Traetto from the 9th century until 1879, when it re-appropriated the ancient Roman name of MINTURNAE or MINTURNUS, of obscure etymology. The rich architectural heritage includes, among other things, the castle, commissioned by Pope Leo III (795-816) and extensively remodeled in the 11th and 15th centuries, the church of the Annunziata (14th century) and that of San Pietro, begun in 10th century, with a beautiful Gothic bell tower with three orders of mullioned windows and valuable Cosmatesque works inside, such as the pulpit from 1260. The archaeological remains of the ancient Ausonian and Roman city ​​are also of great value .