Archeology

Though a young town, Sabaudia offers the possibility of visiting historical sites, and in particular prehistoric and Roman remains.

Numerous finds have been made during the centuries in the southern part of the Pontine plain, the most important of which remains the discovery of a Neanderthal man skull in the Guattari Cave on Mount Circeo in 1939. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the area around Paola’s Lake witnessed a flourish of building: villas, a necropolis, bridges, roads and walls. Patricians spent their holidays here, fascinated by the beauty and tranquillity of the landscape. Emperor Domiziano built a majestic villa in the locality of Palazzo (81-96 a.C.).

Within the building are situated: a small theatre, a gymnasium, a swimming pool, collective facilities, and a bathing area with an annexed thermal spa. During the excavation in 1700 a beautiful statue of Apollo (today at the Kassel Museum, Germany) and one of a Satyr playing flute (at the Vatican Museum) were found.

Nearby Domiziano’s Villa (on the south-east side of Lake Paola) there are the remains of the Casarina, a Roman Villa converted into a convent in medieval times. Along the road that takes you to Torre Paola there is the Lucullo’s Piscina, a pool for breeding fish. Roman Colombari (funeral constructions developed in verticality) are within immediate reach. Directly beside the 17th century Torre Paola, there is the port-canal that connects the lake to the sea. It was initiated by Nerone in his outstanding plan to join Rome to Naples through  the use of coastal lakes and canals. 26 metres high on the Mount  Circeo, overlooking the lake and the sea, there is Torre Paola, ordered by Pope Pio IV as part of a defensive system which involved the entire coast of the ancient Papal State. Further west, behind the site of the Casarina, there is the Lucullo mineral spring, situated in a cave in the middle of a wooded depression, which is of great visual impact. Again on Lake Paola, but near the centre of the town, there is the medieval church of Santa Maria della Sorresca, a small edifice of the VI century, built on the remains of a Roman villa dating back to the 1st  century a.C.