The medieval face of Formia

After the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD, Formia fell in decline likewise to all the territory of southern Lazio. This territory was repeatedly attacked by the German tribes invading the Italian peninsula in different and massive waves. These attacks forced the local population to find refuge on the nearby hills. Starting from the 8th century, the town was destroyed by the Saracens too, and only later on Formia was repopulated in the zone Castellone over the hill and Mola on the shore of the sea.

   Frescoes in St. Luca Church’s
                 crypt

Two new settlements formed the ancient districts of Mola where Charles II D’Anjour built a fortified tower (La Torre di Mola) and Castellone. A small castle was also built by the nobleman Onorato I caetani in the area of Castellone around the second half of 14th century. The two districts were divided by borders of green belts of fields and gardens plenty of oranges as shown by ancient maps dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries.

The two separate villages that gave origin to present-day Formia and had each its patron Saint: Castellone had St. Erasmo, Mola di Gaeta instead had San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist). The two villages in 1819 were united in the joint commune of "Mola e Castellone". In 1863 the two centres were joined under the name of Formia and the problem of the choice of the patron Saint began. Finally in 1938 Pope Pius XI declared St. Erasmo and San Giovanni joint patrons of Formia. The two patrons are now celebrated with processions and blessing of the sea on 24 June.

The town rich Roman and medieval past has left numerous marks on its urban and countryside landscape all around. One the most popular icon to identify Formia from the sea would be what they call the medieval Torre di Mola (Mola’s Tower) on the lower section of the town, next to the sea. Formia was the seat of St. Erasmus's martyrdom; according to tradition he was disembowelled around 303 AD, during the persecutions of Diocletian. According to his Acta, namely the recorde history of legendary lives of saints, the devout bishop was tortured and then became martyr during the time of the Emperor Diocletian by having his intestines wound onto a winch and then decapitated. His gruesome death made him the patron saint of stomach illness, while the winch and capstan relate him to sailors and the sea.

He is buried in the church dedicated to his name, Chiesa di St. Erasmo which can be reached by climbing the Gradoni del Duomo. The ancient burial chamber (martyrium) lies by these steps alongside the single nave cathedral which was erected in the 4th century. After the saint remains and his bishop’s seat were transferred to Gaeta in the 9th century, the building became a powerful Benedictine abbey which passed in the hands of the Olivetani monks, who restored it completely in 1491. The wall along the road clearly shows the monument’s extension showing also a rich collection of sculptures and epigraphs.

Climbing left from Ponte Rialto along Via degli Olivetani the visitors will arrive to in Piazza St. Erasmo with the ancient remains of a tower called Torre Maggiore (14th century) rising out of an ancient acropolis. The Octagonal tower is positioned over a door in the polygonal wall (6th-5th century BC) which according to the ancient inscription on the inner right-hand wall, was restored with opus incertum by Roman architects. Polygonal walls can also be observed in other parts along the coastline and numerous sites in the local hills around Formia.