Visit LatinaThe Museum is located in Latina, one of Italy's youngest cities, founded in 1932 and currently Lazio's second-largest city in terms of inhabitants, with over 126,000 residents (ISTAT 2015).
Latina is the first of the cities created in the Pontino territory following integral reclamation works, followed, in chronological order by Sabaudia, Pontinia and Aprilia. The extensive use of Travertine marble can be seen in public buildings constituting the cities's founding nuclei, both in constructions which adhered prevalently to the canons of rationalism and those oriented towards "lictormonumentalism". Examples of the latter in Latina include the Town Hall with the Civic Tower and Travertine and Palazzo della Guardia di Finanza
Agro PontinoIn a discrete yet significant manner, the use of Travertine characterises architecture through simple decorative details on founding buildings of agricultural towns, which constituted the true heart of the settlement organisation of the integral land reclamation project (Podgora, Montenero, Isonzo, Vodice, San Michele, Faiti, Grappa, Carso, Bainsizza, Santa Maria, Le Ferriere, Piave, Montello, Hermada). Another example worth mentioning is the use of this stone on Mazzoni's building, the Latina railway station, where innovative architectonic lines successfully mingle with traditional material. With reference to the theme of tradition, it is remarkable that most Travertine marble came from the quarries of Cisterna di Latina, a veritable outpost of the integral land reclamation project, as well as a historically consolidated source of this material for the Pontine territories.
This territory is also home to other historic quarry sites, such as the ones dismissed some time ago, located on Mount Circeo, inside the eponymous National Park, from which alabaster was extracted since ancient times, used in the construction of historic buildings of the territory or in Rome, for example the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore. The Lepini mounts are of particular importance in this itinerary of historic quarries, with their slopes overlooking the sea, an integral feature of the pontine planes. Their calcareous composition makes them particularly suitable for aggregate extraction.
The Municipalities of Rocca Massima, Cori, Bassiano, Sermoneta, Sezze, Priverno, Sonnino, Roccasecca dei Volsci, all contain numerous dismissed quarries, proof of an intense exploitation which in some cases has left deep "wounds" in the landscape, difficult to heal, albeit fascinating to observe and visit. For two of these areas, the Petrianni quarry in Sezze, with its "calcareous surfaces and dinosaur tracks" and the spring area of the Monticchio quarry in Sermoneta, recognition as natural monuments has been requested.
Extraction activities continue alongside aforementioned relics of the past, in economic terms constituting one of the most important extraction areas both in the Cori and Priverno areas. Our visit ends at the latter, at a mineral site where silicate sands for industrial use are obtained using state-of-the-art technologies. A material used in a large range of applications, evoking the infinite creative capacities of man and representing, at the same time, a challenge for this activities in terms of landscape protection and safeguard.
