Minturno is a city and comune in the southern Lazio, Italy, situated on the north west bank of the Liris, with a suburb on the opposite bank about 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.
History
The ancient Minturnae was one of the three towns of the Ausones which made war against Rome in 314 BC, the other two being called Ausona and Vescia; and the Via Appia was made two years later. It became a colony in 296 BC. In 88 BC, Gaius Marius hid himself in the marshes of Minturnae in his flight from Sulla. The city was probably destroyed in 883 by the Saracens, who in the following years held the surrounding plain. Its low site was increasingly abandoned by the population in favour of that of the modern town of Minturno, above sea-level. The Saracens were ousted by the Catholic league after the Battle of Garigliano, and Minturnae passed to Gaeta. Two years later, however, it was again ravaged, this time by the Magyars. In 1058 it was partly acquired by the Abbey of Montecassino, but soon after was conquered by the Normans. In the 13th century it went to Richard V dell'Aquila, duke 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 newly formed Kingdom of Italy on 30 October 1861. Minturno was part of the Gustav Line during World War II, and suffered heavy bombings.
The Roman ruins consist of an amphitheatre, a theatre in opus reticulatum, and an aqueduct in opus reticulatum, the quoins of which are of various colours arranged in patterns to produce a decorative effect. There are also a statue commonly called of Sepeone, from the Late Empire age, and the remains of a Capitolium, built in Italic-Etruscan style after 191 BC, near the Appian Way. 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 was 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.
The church of St. Francis, built around 1360 by Roffredo III Caetani, nephew of Pope Boniface VIII
The church of Annunziata, 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. The façade is preceded by a staircase and a porch with 4 arcades. The interior has a nave and two aisles divided by tall columns with ogival arcs. The right aisle houses the notable Baroque Sacrament Chapel, decorated with polychrome marbles. Other art pieces include a candelabra 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 consulMarcus 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. It is built of Roman materials from Minturnae, including several inscriptions and sculptures.
Emigrants
In the early 20th 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 the West Side of Stamford in 1939 and only made up of members whose families hailed from Minturno, had 120 members in 2007. A Minturnese tradition, the Festa de la Regna celebration of harvest day and honoring the Madonna delle Grazie, is still honored in Stamford with an annual procession. There is also a Minturno social club in the Woodbridge section of Toronto, Canada. Michael Fedele, former lieutenant governor of Connecticut, was born in Minturno in 1955.
