Art and Culture

Inhabited since the Upper Palaeolithic, Sperlonga was, according to legend, founded by the Spartans and can probably be identified with the ancient city of Amyclae.

It joined the domain of Rome, imperial, the city had some significance as a place of summer residence of the Roman nobility and the center for supplies of fish, as evidenced by the fish ponds (ponds built in the sea side and part on land, with dams, filters and shutters for the selection and breeding of the product) found in the area. In the fall of Rome, the ruins of the imperial villa, to the sixth century., Were used as shelter by the local population. In medieval times it was part of County Funds. In '500 the city was devastated by the Saracens in 1622 and occupied by the Turks. The ancient town of Sperlonga is, on the Tyrrhenian coast, the testimony of an organization's most northern city of Mediterranean: a dense aggregate building, with narrow streets, staircases, terraces and white buildings. Towards the end of '700 and the beginning of 'Sperlonga 800 takes the current structure and was enriched with various churches. The modern Sperlonga, has become an important archaeological site: fruitful researches have been carried out in 1955 (year of start of construction of the modern way Flacca) in areas where tradition located the villa of Emperor Tiberius. In addition to traces of this, descended to the sea, have been found in some caves fragments of sculptures, including the remains of some famous groups such as plastic Scylla attacking the ship of Ulysses and Polyphemus blinded belonging to the school rodia end century. II a. C.
And 'the Grotto of Tiberius, the great attraction of Sperlonga. It is little more than a kilometer from the country and is one with the remains of the villa above. The Roman emperor Tiberius liked to spend a long time into the stillness of the cave, and had collected a multitude of works of art. The most interesting archaeological remains are those found in the caves at the base of Mount Cianna, while working on the construction of the new route Flacca. The more than 10,000 pieces of high historical and artistic value, including Greek originals are now kept at the nearby National Archaeological Museum (tel. +39 0771 548 028), expressly desired by the local population to prevent these works end up elsewhere, built at Km 16.300 Flacca the same street, and opened in 1963.