Visit Gaeta

Gaeta is a town of about 20,000 inhabitants in the province of Latina, in Lazio. It rises in the homonymous gulf, which overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea. One of the historical and cultural sites not to be missed in Gaeta is the beautiful Temple of San Francesco d 'Assisi. The temple of San Francesco replaced a pre-existing building of worship, founded by Francesco himself in 1222 and where he lived during his stays in Gaeta. The Temple was rebuilt in Gothic style at the behest of Charles II of Anjou, with a characteristic monumental structure, in the fourteenth century; in the nineteenth century, Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies commissioned Giacomo Guarinelli to carry out a radical restoration of the building, during which neo-Gothic decorations were superimposed on the pre-existing fourteenth-century structure. One of the naturalistic attractions not to be missed is the Monte Orlando Park, inserted within the Riviera di Ulisse Regional Park. Besides being a wonderful naturalistic site, it is also an important historical-cultural site; in the eighteenth century it was the site of a powder magazine, thanks to its strategic position in the Kingdom of Naples.