Castrocielo

Castrocielo was born by climbing, and then it came down. At the end of the sixth century some families from Aquino, whose city the Lombards had destroyed, went to live on the summit of Monte Asprano; the place was called Castrum Coeli, the fortress of the sky, for its height and its fortifications. In 994 abbot Mansone of Montecassino went up to fortify it and found «some buildings of the ancients»; the new castrum was begun, and stopped at once for lack of water. When the Saracen raids ended, the people came down again: some founded Colle San Magno, others two settlements in the little valley, Palazzolo, named after the ruined palacium of a Roman villa on the Casilina, and Campo, beside a Benedictine nunnery. By 1603 twelve families were left up on the mountain.

For centuries the village kept both names, Castro Cielo Palazzolo, and the three letters C C P are still on the coat of arms; the present name was fixed by a royal decree of 1882. In this comune's territory lie the excavations of Aquinum (the Augustan walls, the capitolium, the theatre, the amphitheatre, the baths and the villas), and in one of those villas Juvenal was born. Between 1943 and 1944 the front ran less than twenty kilometres away, on the Gustav line: about half the buildings were damaged, and the hills around served as a refuge for civilians. In 2004 the village received the silver medal for civil merit.