What is Terracina known for?

Republican-era Corinthian temple of Jupiter on Monte Sant'Angelo at 227 meters, on twelve great arches over the port. Trajan's 109 AD rock cut through the cliff, CXX inscribed at maximum depth, opened the Via Appia along the coast. Città dell'Olio signed for the hill groves above the town and the Itrana cultivar typical of southern Lazio.

Terracina is a comune in the province of Latina, Lazio region of Italy, about 35 kilometers from Latina.

Lazio · Latina

Terracina

The Volscian Anxur on the Via Appia, where Jupiter's temple sits 227 meters above a port Trajan cleared through stone.

35 km / 22 mi

Nearest hub (Latina)

44,720

Population

May–Sep

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Terracina sits where the Lepini mountains meet the Tyrrhenian Sea, a hundred kilometers south of Rome on the original Via Appia. The Volsci called it Anxur, the name of the youthful Jupiter who was its tutelary god. On the summit of Monte Sant'Angelo, 227 meters above the port, stands his Corinthian temple, thirty-five by twenty meters, raised on a vaulted substructure in the first century BC. The Roman town below was the eleventh forum on the Appia: Aulus Aemilius paved the Foro Emiliano with limestone slabs whose bronze-letter inscription still reads on the ground. The Cattedrale di San Cesareo of 1074 was built directly on the ancient capitolium. Trajan, finding the Appia choked at the headland called Pisco Montano, cut a thirty-eight-meter shelf out of the living rock to let the road continue along the coast. The inscription marking the cut's depth, CXX, is still carved into the wall. Today Terracina runs a Bandiera Blu beach, an active fishing port, and an olive country signed Città dell'Olio.

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Gallery

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Known for

Tempio di Giove Anxur
First-century BC Corinthian temple on Monte Sant'Angelo, 227 meters above the sea, on a vaulted substructure with twelve great arches.
Foro Emiliano
Original limestone-paved Roman forum, bronze-letter inscription of Aulus Aemilius still legible, eleventh forum along the Via Appia from Rome.
Cattedrale di San Cesareo
Co-cathedral consecrated 1074 on the ancient capitolium, Cosmatesque pulpit and pavement, twelfth-century bell tower and portico.
Pisco Montano
Trajanic cut through the cliff, thirty-eight meters high, made in 109 AD so the Via Appia could follow the coast around the headland.
Palazzo Venditti
Medieval-Cistercian palace overlooking the Foro Emiliano next to the Torre Frumentaria, twelfth century, probably the first town hall.
Spiaggia di Terracina
Long sand beach holding the Bandiera Blu, fishing port still active to its eastern end.

When to visit

Best months · May–Sep

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May through September brings the beach and the port to full life: Bandiera Blu water, ferries to Ponza and Ventotene, fishermen unloading at the eastern mole. June and September are the calmer months. July and August fill with Roman day-trippers and touch thirty-five degrees on the seaward slopes. April and October are good for the Tempio di Giove and the Foro Emiliano without the queues. November through March is quiet, the upper town often in cloud, the fishing port unchanged. The olive harvest runs late October into December along the hills above town.