Torre Astura

At the mouth of the Astura River, a fortified islet closes the coast south of Nettuno. Torre Astura rises above the remains of a Roman fishpond; a bridge links the islet to shore. The complex brings together Roman, medieval and Renaissance history.

Why it matters

The Roman site included a port and an imperial residence. The municipality links Astura to Cicero and cites Pliny's description of the place as an island; it is also recorded as a station on the Via Appia in the Tabula Peutingeriana. The Frangipane family built a tower here in 1193. The Colonna later rebuilt the complex into the fortified castle seen today.

What to notice

The pentagonal tower stands among the Roman fishpond's surviving substructures, some visible at the water's edge. A travertine bridge crosses to the islet. Beyond it, the pinewood forms another layer of the coastal landscape; Gabriele D'Annunzio described the area after a visit in March 1897.

Context and history

In 1268, after his defeat at Tagliacozzo, Conradin of Swabia took refuge at Astura. Giovanni Frangipane handed him to Charles of Anjou, and Conradin was later executed in Naples. The complex passed through several families before reaching the Colonna in 1426; their sixteenth-century rebuilding gave it its present form. In 1594 the Colonna ceded it to the Aldobrandini, from whom it passed by inheritance to the Borghese and, in the 1970s, to the Municipality of Nettuno.