Brief depiction
Spigno Saturnia is a very nice, small and quite town in Centre Italy , just in between of Rome and Naples.
It lies partly on the lovely hills of the southern part of the Aurunci Mountains and partly on the Ausente Plain ,
where the new part of the town was build.
Its population, about 2600 people, enjoys very good connection with two of the major Italian cities, very easily reachable both by train as by car, the closeness both of the seaside and the mountains ( Mount Petrella ,
the Aurunci Chains highest peak, lies in the territory of Spigno and is 1533 m high) and take benefit of
the very mild climate all year long.
The ancient part of Spigno, (375 msl) badly destroyed during WW II, was build on a hill.
That's why it's called Spigno Superiore (the upper part of.), or Spigno Vecchio (the old part).
The new town was build after the complete destruction of WW II on the Ausente plain.
It's called Spigno Inferiore or Spigno Nuovo (the new part).
The very first mention of the name Spigno was found on the "Codex Diplomaticus Cajetanus " , year 999 a.C.
while the existence of its castle ( Castrum Spinei ) is stated in a document when it was given
to the Abbey of Montecassino in 1058.
In the following centuries, this domain was first ruled by the Normans, then by the Caetani Family,
the Colonnas and, finally, by the Carafa Family, all local landlords.
In 1862, after the establishment of the new born Italian State, the name Saturnia was added to Spigno, just to discriminate it from other cities with the same name (e.g. Spigno Monferrato, in Piedmont).
WWII was a very sad page of the Spigno history because it was completely destroyed.
Motto of Spigno: " Primu Spignu e po' la raggione"
("First Spigno and then the reason")