Welcome

Welcome, dear visitor, to this town on the Appia, the most solemn of all of Imperial Roman roads, the first great Roman artery that played, and still plays, a role of primary importance in Cisterna’s destiny, this ancient way-station of the Queen of roads. Our town is in a privileged position to the North of the Pontine Plain, almost on its border. Situated on that immense exstension of plains of Southern Latium, between the last slopes of Albani Hills, the Lepini Mountains, the Ausoni Mountains and the Thyrrenian Sea – from Anzio to Terracina – that is known as the Pontine Region. In such an aulic context, favoured by a mild and salubrious climate, Cisterna offers visitors touristic itineraries of great historic, artistic, archaeological and environmental value, that will make for a pleasant and interesting sojourn even for the most demanding visitors.

BRIEF HISTORY

The origino of cisterna goes back to the way-station on the Via Appia called Tres Tabernae. The first historic mention of Tres Tabernae can be fund in the Acts of the Holy Apostles, where it is said that Saint Paul, during his hundertaking to convert the peoples, stayed at Tres Tabernae.The last mention of Tres Tabernae goes back to the year 868, when the borugh was invaded by the Saracens who, having encountered resistance there, destroyed it and razed it to the ground.

This new borough, rebuilt from the X° century onward,took the name of Cisterna Neronis, which it kept throughout the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, in 1165 Cisterna was again destroyed by Federico Barbarossa’s army, when he vented his rage against the Pope Alexander III, razing to the ground Ninfa, where the Pope had taken refuge, and Cisterna, then owned by the Frangipanes, a house allied to Alexander III. Cisterna’s most the intense history starded without doubt after the year 1000, with thw establishment of fiefs in the area. The Commune belonged first to the Church and then to the Frangipane, Caetani and Borgia families. The Caetanis took good care of it, and made in the headquartes for their activities.

Thus, in the mid-sixteenth century, they erected the Palace, today still standing, called Palazzo Caetani, and had the brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccari and many other contemporary artists adorn it with frescos. Cisterna’s importance grew with the start of land-improvement works promoted by Pius VI at the end of the XVIII° century, to the point that the town assumed a primary role in the agricultural and woodlands exploitation of a very vast territory that, until the times preceding the great land improvement, extended to the forest of Terracina. Its fauna was remarkable too, and its butteri, or cowboys on horseback,amongst the best.After the wars with the Indians, William Cody, Know as Buffalo Bill, came to Italy with a circus, participating in shooting and riding competition. A buttero from Cisterna Augusto Imperiali, competed against him and bet him, in estate of Torre del Padiglione, new part of Aprilia’s territory. After having been part of Rome it was assigned to the new Pontine province in 1934. The Second World War hit the town hard.

At Anzio landing, the German Command reacted by concentrating the equivalent of two divisions to face the disembarker troop.Only a few inhabitants left the town, the others remained and hid in the grottos under Palazzo Caetani to watch, impotent, the destruction of the town. On 11 may 1944 the great allied offensive action began and, on 3 June, the German troops bega their retreat, even from Rome. After the war, all of Cisterna was a building site, work was starded with great enthusiasm and without asking for any special assistance. With every means the ruins were swept away in order to reconstruct the lost town; with a feverish diligence, Cisterna began a thorough and foridable reconstruction, transforming and adapting its primitive agricultural structure. To the farms and model firm have been added industrial complexes such as GoodYear, Slim, Findus, Sagit and others.-

MONUIMENTS AND TOURISTIC ITINERARIES OF CISTERNA

PALAZZO CAETANI, SALA ZUCCARI, THE GROTTOS, CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA ASSUNTA IN CIELO, FONTANA BIONDI AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS.