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City walls and acropolis of Cassino: ancient Casinum at the foot of Montecassino
The archaeological park of Casinum stands along the road that climbs from Cassino to the abbey of Montecassino, in southern Lazio. Here, between the 6th and 5th centuries BC, the Volsci and the Samnites built a circuit of walls in polygonal masonry — large mortar-free blocks fitted together dry — that rose from the valley up to the acropolis on the hill summit. In 529, Saint Benedict founded his monastery on that very acropolis, and wrote the Rule that would shape the future of Western monasticism.
What remains of the ancient town
Visible stretches of the original walls are preserved along the park route, together with the Porta Campana, which had already been restored in 57 AD, as attested by an inscription. The amphitheatre is the most imposing monument: 85 metres in length, seating 4,000 spectators, built in the 1st century AD by noblewoman Ummidia Quadratilla, who also had her mausoleum erected here, in the form of a Greek cross, a unique example in the panorama of Roman funerary architecture. There is also the theatre built in the Augustan era, still used for concerts, the Nymphaeum Ponari and a stretch of the Via Latina with its original basalt paving stones laid in a cambered pattern.
The museum
The "G. Carettoni" National Archaeological Museum, situated at the entrance to the park, has the Sword of St Victor (a La Tène-type sword) and the Athlete of Cassino on display.
