Complesso monumentale – Museo di Palazzo Caetani

Palazzo Caetani is a Renaissance palace on Cisterna di Latina's central square, begun in 1560 around the older Frangipane fortress. Though the 1944 bombardments destroyed one wing, the surviving rooms preserve frescoes, a courtyard and the entrance to underground galleries.

Why it matters

The palace is the civic landmark of Cisterna and a record of the town's Caetani period. Duke Bonifacio Caetani commissioned the residence around the medieval rocca. The municipality attributes its design, with near certainty, to Francesco da Volterra. Brick and travertine, a square courtyard and restrained forms characterise its sixteenth-century architecture.

What to notice

The porticoed courtyard retains a Roman well from the fortress phase, and the Frangipane tower opens from this space. On the piano nobile, the Sala Zuccari preserves part of a Mannerist fresco cycle by Federico and Taddeo Zuccari, with scenes of life on the Caetani estates. The Sala della Loggia has a painted trompe-l'œil view and an inscription recalling the coronation of Pope Alexander III at Ninfa in 1159. The contrast between the plain exterior and the surviving decorated rooms is especially striking.

Context and history

The palace was built at the highest point of the old borgo, around the earlier fortress and the arch known as Porta Agrippina. It served as a residence and stopping place on the Appian route for travelling nobility. In 1944 bombardments destroyed much of Cisterna and cut the palace in half. The surviving portion was restored and adapted to civic use, including as a home for the municipal library and collections. Its underground galleries form a separate part of the complex.