Sermoneta: borgo, castello e giardini di Ninfa

Sermoneta still retains its medieval appearance, given by the typical “tower houses” inside the village, the Church of Santa Maria Assunta and San Pietro in Corte, the city walls built to protect from barbarian invasions in the early medieval period, and the Caetani Castle, erected in the 13th century by the noble family that ruled the fiefdom until modern times. The castle today belongs to the Roffredo Caetani Foundation and hosts cultural meetings and residencies for artists and scholars, as well as events such as the International Pontine Festival of classical and chamber music.
The castle stables were part of the scenery in some scenes of the film “Nothing Left to Do But Cry” with Massimo Troisi and Roberto Benigni.
The Foundation was created by Lelia Caetani, the last descendant of the family, who passed away in 1977.
The artistic sensibility of the Caetani family extended, however, also to the surroundings of Sermoneta.
The Castle of the ancient city of Ninfa, already owned by the family since the 1200s, was restored in the 1920s and the garden filled with specimens of flora and fauna from around the world (such as Japanese maple, Canadian fir, bamboo) based on an English garden model, where the ruins of the ancient city integrate with the vegetation and the evocative lake, granting the Ninfa gardens the recognition of Natural Monument of the Italian Republic. In the 20th century, Ninfa hosted figures such as Gabriele D’Annunzio and Boris Pasternak.