Terracina is situated at the south - east of the Pontine Plain and the
foothills of the Ausoni is composed of a medieval core on the slope of the
hill and a modern part lying flat to the sea.
On the origins of the city are woven many legends . The most common is that
which attributes its foundation to a group of exiles Spartans , who fled
from their homeland , landed on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea , where
they founded a village. These exiles maintained their traditions and customs
originate , such as the use of guests to dine on a table spread but not on
the bare ground , hence the name of the city Earth - dinner , transformed
over time in Terracina. The historical Volscan want the safest , and which
were by the Volsci in Latium from the sixth to the fourth century received
the name of Anxur , in the name of their God protector.
The city reached its peak during the imperial period , when the maritime
traffic grew to the point that the Emperor Trajan ordered the expansion of
the port , which still exist today the main structures . Much of its
importance during the rule of Rome , arose from the fact of being in
Terracina place to stop along the Via Appia , which ensured the connection
of the City with the regions of the south. It was just to make it easier to
pass through the extreme Appia appendix of Ausoni that time of Trajan was
performed cutting Pisco Montano , huge limestone outcrop separated from the
mass of Monte Sant'Angelo , which still dominates the queen viarum forming a
characteristic feature of the landscape between the sea and the mountain.
The work contributed in some way to orient towards the harbor all the
movement in the city. At a high city came alongside a lower town that
gradually has become the center of life of Terracina. The remains of
antiquity therefore predominate in the upper part of the city and among
these, the Giove's temple , which crowns the summit of Monte S. Angelo ,
Palazzo Venditti and Emiliano Forum , on which was erected in the thirteenth
century, the Cathedral of Romanesque - Lazio .
From the eleventh century and became its ecclesiastical property in
Terracina , a town on the border between the Papal States and the kingdom of
Naples was held at the conclave which elected Pope Urban II , promoter of
the first crusade for the liberation of the holy places . The local memory
has preserved the memory of this Pope , binding to the seat marble preserved
in the Cathedral of S. Cesareo in which he would sit Urban II .
Subsequently, the territory of the city was disputed between the various
lordships of the place and now conquered by the Frangipane , by now
Annibaldi now from the accounts of the Funds.
In 1800 he returned permanently under the dominion of the Pope. At that time
it was Pope Pius VI , in which the Terracina together with all the residents
of the Lepine owe much for having initiated the reclamation of the Pontine
Marshes . A Pius VI was responsible for the construction of a new
neighborhood called village Pio, in his honor , or even the Navy and the
design of the Temple of San Salvatore.
Terracina The economy relies on tourism, agriculture and commerce. Tourism
employs both the extensive coastline , over fifteen miles, that stretches
from the city to San Felice Circeo , the area is hilly , so valuable that it
has been protected by a park in the area of Campo Soriano.