Maranola : The Village

Leaving Formia visitors can easily access the medieval hill village of Maranola. Maranola (268 mt over the sea) dates back to high medieval origins and the village must be entered through the gate in the panoramic Piazza del Seggio. The small village preserves its typical medieval look with ruins of a castle, many narrow alleys where one can only walk and the churches of St.Mary and Martyrs and St. Luke. The slopes of the Aurunci Mountains just behind Maranola rise almost abruptly from sweet, round hills to higher peaks.

    The view from the village

The village is just on border the Aurunci Regional Park, an important reserve nature to admire the beauty of Mediterranean mountains so close to the sea. Maranola with its secondary, panoramic roads climbing toward the mountains is the starting point to find the first paths through woods of oak, hornbeam and beech for interesting excursions in the Mediterranean wilderness of the Aurunci peaks.

There are many paths which take excursionists into some of the most beautiful and interesting parts of the mountains. In particular, the path called ‘il sentiero della statua’ (the statue’s path) leads from Maranola to the summit of Monte Altino (Mount Altino, 1252 mt) where there is a chapel presided over by a statue of ‘il Cristo Redentore’ (Christ the Redeemer), a single block of iron cast in Paris and weighting more than 21 tonnes. It took 40 days to transport it to this site and the monument was inaugurated on 31st July 1901 one of the 20 statues erected on summits throughout Italy to celebrate and greet the new 20th century.

The monument represents 30 dioceses from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic, including that of Manfredonia, where the sanctuary of San Michele del Gargano was the principal one of the southern Longobards duchies. In the village, the church of San Luca, reconstructed after the 2nd World War lies near to the medieval tower of the old castle and contains many interesting works of art.

On the opposite of the road lies also the oldest church in Maranola, S.Maria dei Martiri, which houses many precious 14th and 15th century frescoes and a terracotta nativity crib made in Puglia from the 16th century. For some years the village has organized a living crib, a commemorative event in its old and picturesque lanes and as well as olive oil workshops and exhibitions; these events expose to visitors images of the ancient customs and traditions of the local crafts and rural life that were once practiced on these hills of southern Lazio.

Outside the village walls the late Gothic church of S. Antonio, houses the miraculous statue of San Michele, patron saint of Maranola together with San Luca. The church was built when the local castle was extended by the powerful lord Onorato I Caetani, Count of Fondi. This improvement aimed at creating a visible landmark for travelers and peregrines on the road from the village of San Germano (Cassino). The church was clearly visible from the Count castle in the pretty village of Castellonorato also nestled few miles away on the east slopes of the Aurunci hills.