Roccagorga was born of a flight: its origins go back to 796, after the destruction of Privernum, and tradition has it that the name comes from a matron called Gorga who settled on Monte Nero together with the refugees from Privernum. The village grew at the end of the Middle Ages around the castle; at the highest point stood a stout quadrangular tower that could speak by signals with the towers of Maenza, Asprano and Monte Acuto. The fief passed from the counts of Ceccano to the Caetani, then to the Ginetti and finally, in 1722, to the Orsini di Gravina, the last feudal lords.
On the sixth of January 1913 the people demonstrated against the arbitrary way the local taxes were applied and against the complete absence of an aqueduct, of sewers and of rubbish collection. The forces of order opened fire and killed seven people. Benito Mussolini, then editor of the socialist Avanti!, wrote an article headed «State assassination» defending the demonstrators' case, and was prosecuted for it. The square where it all happened is now called piazza VI Gennaio. Another date the village marks every year is the tenth of November 1936, when a military aircraft crashed in via Cristoforo Colombo: sixteen dead and fifty injured.
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📅 Every year, on 2 June, with a week of festivities from 1 June
Roccagorga celebrates Saint Erasmus on 2 June, with a week of festivities starting 1 June. The last Sunday of May brings the pilgrimage to the Hermitage of Sant'Erasmo.
📅 Every year, on the first Sunday of September, with a week of festivities
Roccagorga celebrates its co-patron, Saint Anthony of Padua, on the first Sunday of September, with a week of festivities in the chapel dedicated to him.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
