Fondi lies in the fertile plain, behind the beautiful Gulf of Gaeta. Preserved, enclosed in the walls of the castle complex – baron palace, a beautiful medieval quarter featuring lanes interwoven – according to the pattern inherited from the pre-existing Roman city – along which there are ancient houses and churches of artistic significance. Between the end of the 1900s and the first part of the 15th century, this city, the capital of a county, enjoyed great importance both from the strategic and cultural point of view.

ENVIRONMENT AND HISTORY
Located on the immediate hinterland of the Tyrrhenian coast of the extreme south of Lazio, at the foot of the Aurunci Mountains, the city extends over the fertile plain of the same name (c.d. Piana di Fondi).

The waterfalls of Monte delle Fate and Monte Calvilli have in the past been a problem of swamp, but today, in addition to the picturesque little Lake (Natural Monument), they are at the service of an agricultural area among the most productive of Europe he feeds a large Fruit and Vegetable Market (and most of the daily consumption of the Capital).

The first city (Fundi, founded by Aurunci) became of Volsci and then passed to the Romans in the 4th century. to. C., receiving later (in 188 BC) full citizenship. Already from antiquity, in a strategic position halfway between Rome and Naples (at Garigliano, a historic natural border with Campania) came in Roman times to find Via Appia; In this area was produced the famous Ceco Wine, much loved by the Romans. According to Svetonio, Fondi was born Livia Drusilla, wife of Augusto and mother of Tiberius.

After a long period of occupation of the Longobards, from 846, Saracens had held it for thirty years until their defeat (by Pope John VIII) in the Battle of Circeo (in 877). During these thirty years, the coastal countries of Lower Lazio were looted and ransacked by the Muslims, who in fact had several complications in the Italian principals of the nearby South (something that had greatly worried Pope John VIII, a truly distinctive, To the century Alessio Brugnoli).

Fondi, freed, was then first assigned to the Byzantine Ipati of Gaeta, then passed to the Norman Kingdom that assigned it to the Dell’Aquila who took the title of Fund Accounts. At the time of the Kingdom of Naples in 1299, the last descendant of Dell’Aquila married Loffredo, nephew of Pope Bonifacio VIII of the Caetani family and this (which holds the County of Fondi until 1494) will be the fundamental family for the subsequent civil history And urban planning of Fondi, which had become the capital of a vast territory. It was at Fondi that Honored The Caetani gathered in 1378 (Avignon Period) a Conclave that elected Clement VII antipope in opposition to the legitimate Pope (Urban VI) provoking the West Schism. At the end of the three hundred, with the arrival of Charles VIII the county was granted to Prospero Colonna; The city, despite having lost political significance, had further urban improvements.

With Giulia Gonzaga (beautiful and young widow of Vespasiano Colonna, who married in 1526) there was a court of artists and literate (Fondi was nicknamed ‘Little Athens’). It was precisely as a consequence of a failed attempt by Giulio to abduct the Saraceno Barbarossa (who wanted to make a gift to Solimano the Magnificent) that Fondi suffered in 1534 as a devastating plunder. After a second looting (at the end of the fifteenth century) cecame swamp, in 1636, there was a strong depopulation, accompanied by the transfer of properties to casati not always committed to the good of the city.

MEDIEVAL FONDI TODAY Until the 1920s Fonds remained virtually inside the ancient walled city which now contains the Middle Ages; Then the city expanded into new settlements (the new center of gravity today lies in the south of the old hamlet).

The medieval quarter has a Orthogonal pathway (pivoted along Appio Claudio street), about 400 meters long, a clear legacy of Roman urbanism. The walls (‘polygonal’ Roman walls on which the medieval walls were built) are still recognizable, although partially reused for the support of dwellings. The Castle with its adjacent Palazzo Baronale stands at the boulevard of the main entrance of the ancient hamlet and with a characteristic cylindrical tower that overlaps a square base is an integral part (with other large Cylindrical towers) of the city wall. The Castle was built by the Caetians in the thirteenth century, and numerous large and small historic buildings have been preserved (miraculously preserved by unconsulted ‘modernizations’) in this area. Among them: the beautiful Duomo (thirteenth century) of St. Peter (with valuable works of medieval art), the Collegiate (fifteenth) of St. Mary (rich of works d ‘Sixteenth Century Art) and the former Convent – Church of Saint Domenico (Thomas Aquinas stayed there, preserved with a beautiful cloister).

Just outside the Medieval Quarter lies the 14th-century Church of St. Francis, which, despite having suffered damage and restoration throughout the centuries, has a beautiful porch, cloister and bell tower well restored. From the Roman times until the abandonment of the sixteenth century, Fondi was home to a thriving Jewish community, which is called the Judean Ward. Along with many medieval times, in addition to many rural churches outside the perimeter of the medieval city, Fondi is home to the ancient Saint Magno Abbey, recently restored, derived from an ancient Cenobio, Splendor in the ‘500.