Ausonia is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in southern

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, central

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It takes its name from the

Ausones "Ausones" (; ), the original name and the extant Greek form for the Latin "Aurunci", was a name applied by Greek writers to describe various Italic peoples inhabiting the southern and central regions of Italy. The term was used, specifically, ...

Aurunci The Aurunci were an Italic tribe that lived in southern Italy from around the 1st millennium BC. They were eventually defeated by Rome and subsumed into the Roman Republic during the second half of the 4th century BC. Identity Aurunci is the n ...

, whose ancient town

Ausona The County of Osona, also Ausona (, ; ), was one of the Catalan counties of the ''Marca Hispanica'' in the Early and High Middle Ages. It was based around the capital city of Vic (''Vicus'') and the corresponding diocese, whose territory was ro ...

(member of the Auruncan Pentapolis), located nearby, was destroyed by the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

in 314 BC. In the Middle Ages it was known as Fratte. Ausonia is located near the border between Lazio and

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

, in a valley between the Monti Aurunci and the

Mainarde The Monti delle Mainarde, also known just as Le Mainarde, is a range of calcareous mountains on the border between the regions of Lazio and Molise in southern central Italy. It is the southern extension of the Monti della Meta. The highest pe ...

. Its names stems from

, an ancient city of the

Osci The Osci (also called Oscans, Opici, Opsci, Obsci, Opicans) were an Italic people of Campania and Latium adiectum before and during Roman times. They spoke the Oscan language, also spoken by the Samnites of Southern Italy. Although the langua ...

, whose location, however, has not been identified after it was destroyed by the

in 314 BC. The finding of Latin inscriptions devoted to

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

suggest that a pilgrimage road could pass from here in ancient times.

Main sights

The main attraction is the sanctuary of '' Santa Maria del Piano'' (15th century, although founded in 1100). Its sacristy has a

maiolica Maiolica is tin-glazed pottery decorated in colours on a white background. The most renowned Italian maiolica is from the Renaissance period. These works were known as ''istoriato'' wares ("painted with stories") when depicting historical and ...

pavement from the 17th-century Neapolitan school, and a polyptych by

Giovanni Filippo Criscuolo Giovanni Filippo Criscuolo (c. 1500–1584) was an Italian painter, active during the late-Renaissance period, mainly in Naples. Born in Gaeta, He trained with Andrea da Salerno and with Perino del Vaga in Rome. His brother Giovanni Angelico ...

(1531). The

crypt A crypt (from Greek κρύπτη (kryptē) ''wikt:crypta#Latin, crypta'' "Burial vault (tomb), vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, Sarcophagus, sarcophagi, or Relic, religiou ...

has medieval frescoes with stories of the life of St Remicarda. Other churches include the 12th-century San Michele Arcangelo and the church of Santa Maria di Correano. Ausonia is home to a medieval castle built by the

Princes of Capua This is a list of the rulers of the Principality of Capua. Lombard rulers of Capua Gastalds and counts The gastalds (or counts) of Capua were vassals of the princes of Benevento until the early 840s, when Gastald Landulf began to clamour for the i ...

in the 11th century. Remains include two towers around the

keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

and the walls.

Dialect

Southern Latian dialect {{short description, Dialect of Neapolitan The Southern Latian dialect ( Italian: ''laziale meridionale'') is a Southern Italian Romance vernacular widespread in the southernmost areas of Lazio, in particular south of the city of Frosinone and st ...

is spoken in the city.See: Pellegrini G. B, Carta dei dialetti d'Italia, Pacini ed., Pisa 1977.

References

External links

Official website

Cities and towns in Lazio {{Lazio-geo-stub