- LATINA VILLAGE -

To complete our brief "touristic tour" of the town, it's forcingly needed to visit the little village of Latina (hamlet of Baia), that's a peaceful town that keeps in its name a precise reminding to the Roman "Legio Latina" soldiers that probably were allocated in the area.

In the middle of the town, stands the elegant S. LORENZO CHURCH, with its architecture simple and, in the same time, refined, whose peculiarity is that its main façade is parallel and not perpendicular to the main street of the town. The interiors are very sober, even if with their wonderful simple elegance and a particular glance deserves the beautiful altair.

A closer visit deserves surely also the gorgeous CHURCH of the ANNUNZIATA, recently restored. In this Church, we could admire the internal paintings and most of all the wonderful wood ceiling, superbly painted and adorned with pure gold. On the front of the temple, above the entrance door, there's a big crest chiseled with the letters "A.G.P." (Ave Gratia Plena), but we gotta also notice the mysterious recall to the "Legio Latina": the omnipresent doble "L".
Also very beautiful is the bell-tower, fully builded with stones.
Closer to the Church, at the base of the stairs, apparently abandoned, lies the capital of a doric column of an unknown origin (Capua?..).

Still talking about the "Legio Latina", near the Church of the Annunziata (on the left wall of the building), placed in the middle of a little arch, there is a mysterious stone, chiseled as a crest (see picture here, on the right): in the middle of the crest, are chiseled an open book with the double "L" (Legio Latina) and a perfect copy of the mysteriousn Templar (..or Norman?) Cross also visible on one of the stones sited on the main tower of the Castle of Baia. The crest is also surmounted from an enigmatic latin inscription that tells: "EXTAT BULLA IULII PP.II SUB A.D. 1507". The meaning of this inscription is not that clear: probably it meant that the building was build under the direction of the Pope Giulio II in the Year 1507; or probably that the building was enclosed in an official inventory of all the properties of the same Pontiff. Who knows? How many misteries in a little lonely stone no more than 25 centimetres high...

Walking between the alleys of the town, it's easy to notice and to appreciate the innumerable stone noble crests placed on the door entrance of some houses and/or the various painted icons (representing biblic scenes or sacre figures) sited along the way. More, it's a pleasure to take a close look to the structure and the internal architecture of the alleys, full of arch and double archs, with their tight entrances that like magic suddenly get inside large squares, invisible from the outside. For example, the double arch in the picture here on the left, is very interesting because it was once probably closed by a giant front gate: in fact, still are visible the two enormous stone pivots that once holded the front gate. Perhaps the whole work has been manufactured by a certain "DOMINICUS CONT", who left his name on the two basement stones placed on the left and on the right of the structure, also adding that "IN HOC OPUS FIERI FECIT", meaning that he "proudly made it by using local stones"...

However we must also specify that the arch structure are a typical example of Baia e Latina architecture. The main peculiarity of these archs (common to all the similar works existing in town) that almost looks like if they'd rather to challenge with the gravity laws, is that they aren't holded together simply by lime or concrete - as somebody could wrongly think -, no way: what hold perfectly an arch in place, is the perfect stones joint made up thanks to the accurate hand-working of the old stone-artisans. An arch of stones builded in this way, makes an incredibly solid structure that can easily resist for centuries to the flowing of time, the wasting and also to the...earthquakes!! In a theoric way, these archs could stay perfect in place also without using concrete (!!), thanks to the particular working made up for each stone. In fact, the making of an arch wasn't so easy as it may looks at a first sight: first they needed to be worked handly 'on the ground', and only when everything was perfectly fitting they were finally placed on their definitive site.
But let's go back to the visit of the other medieval beauties of Latina...

It worths a visit, also because it is nice kept, the CASTLE of Latina that, with its cyclopic stone walls and its complex structure, stands above the little urban districts of the town. The main tower is absolutely well preserved, 'til it's easy to notice the original defense works made on its top, while in the interiors it's easy to understand (payin' a little of attention..) also the various gates and each single floor... However the castle gives also other great curiousities for all the visitors, such like hidden tunnels, secret passages, etc. (..but our advice is to not try to autonomously wear the dangerous jacket of Indiana Jones..!!). One of these most famous particulars, is represented by a cistern-well, about invisible because almost hidden under a wall stone and ground.

On the same hill, where one can experience a wonderful view on the little town below, all the other towns around the area, the Volturno river Valley and the impressive Matese Mounts, there is also the MADONNA DELLE GRAZIE Sanctuary, a cult temple famous not only to the local devouts, but also to the people from the town neighbour towns, that every year are used to make traditional pilgrimages reaching the Sanctuary simply by walking for some chilometres...
The interior of the Sanctuary are pretty simple, but evocative too, with its little but quite much artistically ornate altair, made in stone and marble and painted with rich colours. Very nice are also the paintings and the very old statue of the Madonna delle Grazie, represented while sweetly giving her breast to her little Child Jesus.
Closer to the Sanctuary there's also a little monastir, ready to lodge 4 or 5 monks, but actually in disuse...