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Sezze: the City of the Passion at the Foot of Mount Semprevisa
Sezze dominates the Pontine Plain from a hill standing at the foot of Mount Semprevisa, in the heart of the Lepini Mountains. The ancient name Setia evokes mythology: according to legend Hercules founded it, after defeating the Laestrygonians. The name is said to derive from the bristles of the Nemean lion — the same creature that appears on the town’s coat of arms, with a cornucopia between its paws.
From Polygonal Walls to the Academy of the Argonauts
Once a Volscian city, later a Roman colony in a strategic position along the mountain road, Sezze preserves stretches of polygonal walls and the remains of roads and temples. The medieval centre wraps itself around the ancient Latin citadel. Here Gaius Valerius Flaccus, the 1st-century Latin poet who wrote the Argonautica, was born. And in 1690 it was in Sezze that the Accademia degli Argonauti was founded, among the first such academies in Italy. Here too St Charles of Sezze (1613–1670) was born. He was a mystic friar and theologian, despite being almost entirely illiterate.
Good Friday and the Lepine Table
On Good Friday Sezze becomes the City of the Passion, with 40 living tableaux, over 500 performers, and costumes dating back to the 1930s and 1950s. The Sacred Representation, going back to the Middle Ages and relaunched in 1933, is among the most important in Europe. At the dining table, the Sezze artichoke reigns supreme, and is the star of the bazzoffia — a soup containing vegetables, eggs and bread.
