Monte Cavo

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Monte Cavo is the second highest mountain of the complex of the Alban Hills, Italy. An old volcano extinguished around 10.000 years ago, it is almost 1.000 m above the sea level and about 20 Km from the sea, in the communal territory of Rocca di Papa. It is the dominant peak of the Alban Hills (3,115 ft, 41.76° N 12.73° E). The name "Monte Cavo" comes from Cabum, a Latin settlement on this mountain. Under king Tullus Hostilius there was volcanic activity reported by Livy in his book of Roman history: "...there had been a shower of stones on the Alban Mont..".

Contents 1 Jupiter Latiaris 2 The Sacred Way 3 Pagan temple, hermitage, hotel 4 References 5 External links 6 Photo gallery

[edit] Jupiter Latiaris

The Monte Cavo is the Mons Albanus of the Latins. It was a sacred mountain to the italic peoples of the Latium who lived in Alba Longa, (the Albani (people)), and other cities, and therefore a sacred mountain to the Romans; there they gave rise to the temple of Jove (Jupiter) Latiaris, one of the more important destinations of pilgrimage for the Latin people and in the centuries of Roman domination.

On the Mons Albanus, between January and March, the "Latin Festivals" were developed. The newly chosen Consuls had to sacrifice to Jupiter Latiaris and to announce the Latin Vacations. When the Consul achieved a victory in war he also had to celebrate the triumph on the Albanus Mountain. Here in the Latium temple were celebrated every year the Feriae Latinae for four days by the representatives of 47 cities (30 Latin and 17 Federate).

In 222 year of Rome Tarquinius Superbus legendary King of Rome fixed a temple common to the Latins, to the Hernici and the Volsci on the Mons Albanus, where every year there were celebrations in honor of Jupiter Latiaris. In return, Jupiter Latiaris conferred upon whomever was elected head of the Latin confederation, the power of dictator latinus .

[edit] The Sacred Way

A triumphal procession along this sacred way that left the Appian Way at Ariccia and climbed ut 450 m to the hillside. More than 5 Km of this way is well preserved through the woods.

[edit] Pagan temple, hermitage, hotel

The history of the Pagan temple of Iuppiter Latiaris was interrupted in the early Middle Ages, when a hermitage was built by a Dalmatian hermit devoted to St. Peter, which replaced the pagan temple. It was visited by Pope Pius II in 1463, and subsequently by Pope Alexander VII. After the Dalmatian hermits the Polish religious order of Edmondo of Buisson was established there, then the Trinitarian Spaniards, and finally the Flemish Missionaries.

Then the hermitage was convert to a monastery (1727). The Passionists came in 1758 and restored it in 1783, using the materials of the temple of Jupiter, as found and raised by Henry Benedict Stuart, Duke of York, bishop of Frascati.

During this period there were guests in the monastery: the king Francis II of Naples in 1865 and Pope Pius IX in 1867. The "contemplative-missionaries" abandoned the monastery in 1889.

In 1890 the structure was converted to an hotel that entertained national and international personalities, among others: Umberto II of Italy, Massimo d'Azeglio, Luigi Pirandello, Armando Diaz (who sojourned in Rocca di Papa and was remembered with a commemorative headstone mail in the residence on De Rossi palace) and the King Edward VIII with his wife Wallis Simpson.

From 1942 the hotel was used as military base for radio communications by the German Wermacht. On June 3, 1944, soldiers of 142nd Regiment-36th Infantry Division (United States) ("Texas" Division), attacked and captured the military site^[1] --with 20 enemy soldiers killed and 30 prisoners taken.

[edit] References

• Strabo - Geographica (Strabo) book V chapter 3 - Rome 20 BC
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Georges Dumézil, Archaic Roman Religion. ISBN 0-8018-5481-4.
• T.J. Cornell - The beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to Punic War - London 1995 - ISBN 0-415-01596-0
• Livy: Ab Urbe Condita Book I cap. 31 - *Ab Urbe Condita (Latin)
• Dionysius of Halicarnassus: The Roman Antiquities

[1] National Archives and Records Administrations of College Park, MD, USA (signature:Record Group 407, Entry 427, File 334-INF(142)-0.3)

[edit] External links

• English translation of the Roman Antiquities - Dionysius of Halicarnassus (at LacusCurtius)
• Cassius Dio, Roman History (English translation on LacusCurtius)

[edit] Photo gallery

The Sacret Way going down	The Sacret Way going on	The structure on the top	Lake Nemi from Sacret Way
Lake Albano from Sacret Way	Stones of Jupiter Latiaris Temple