Grotte Caetani

Under the main square of Cisterna di Latina the ground is hollow. A spiral staircase in the cloister of Palazzo Caetani drops into a network of galleries fifteen metres deep, cut through soft local stone. For two months in 1944 they sheltered nearly the whole town from the bombs; at Christmas they hold a nativity scene that draws thousands.

Why it matters

The Grotte Caetani are the most atmospheric part of the Palazzo Caetani monumental complex and one of the defining features of Cisterna di Latina. Their interest is double. Historically they are a sixteenth-century (and possibly older) work of excavation whose purpose is still debated, running beneath the old town to destinations that have not all been mapped. Humanly they are the place where, during the intense bombardments of the Second World War, about 4,000 inhabitants of Cisterna hid for 58 consecutive days — an episode recorded on the municipality's own monument page that makes these cellars a memorial as much as a curiosity.

What to notice

A spiral staircase from the palace cloister descends into a semi-underground room, probably an old cellar, now associated with the artistic presepe. From there a broad central corridor branches into galleries that run under the historic centre. The vaults reveal the stone is cappellaccio, a mixture of tuff and pozzolana, and the chisel marks of the quarrymen are still visible — direct evidence of how the galleries were cut. The depth of about fifteen metres, the dry air and the regular geometry of the corridors give a concrete sense of Renaissance engineering. The network's full extent remains uncertain, and galleries leading toward unidentified destinations have inspired both legends and research.

Context and history

The origin of the galleries is unclear. Two explanations are associated with the galleries: a legend claiming Emperor Nero used them to carry water to a villa at Nettuno — chronologically implausible, since the palace is sixteenth-century, and retained only as folklore — and a more credible theory that the Caetani dug them as hidden links between their properties and as escape routes in case of danger. What is documented is their twentieth-century role. During the Second World War, when the town above was almost completely destroyed, the galleries became a crowded refuge: about 4,000 residents spent 58 days underground. In recent decades the galleries have also hosted cultural uses, including a Christmas nativity scene in the first chamber.