For information about the World War II battle, see Battle of Monte Cassino.

The restored Abbey of Monte Cassino.

Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about 130 kilometres (81 mi) southeast of Rome, Italy, c. 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the west of the town of Cassino (the Roman Casinum having been on the hill) and 520 m (1,706.04 ft) altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944. The site has been visited many times by the Popes and other senior clergy, including a visit by Pope Benedict XVI in May 2009. The monastery is one of the few remaining territorial abbeys within the Catholic Church.

History[link]

According to Gregory the Great's biography of Benedict, Life of Saint Benedict of Nursia, the monastery was constructed on an older pagan site, a temple of Apollo that crowned the hill. The biography records that the area was still largely pagan at the time and Benedict's first act was to smash the sculpture of Apollo and destroy the altar. He then reused the temple, dedicating it to Saint Martin, and built another chapel on the site of the altar dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. Archaeologist Neil Christie notes that it was common in such hagiographies for the protagonist to encounter areas of strong paganism.^[1] Once established at Monte Cassino, Benedict never left. There he wrote the Benedictine Rule that became the founding principle for western monasticism. There at Monte Cassino he received a visit from Totila, king of the Ostrogoths, perhaps in 543 (the only remotely secure historical date for Benedict), and there he died.

Monte Cassino became a model for future developments. Unfortunately its prominent site has always made it an object of strategic importance. It was sacked or destroyed a number of times. In 584, during the abbacy of Bonitus, the Lombards sacked the abbey, and the surviving monks fled to Rome, where they remained for more than a century. During this time the body of St Benedict was transferred to Fleury, the modern Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire near Orleans, France.

A flourishing period of Monte Cassino followed its re-establishment in 718 by Abbot Petronax, when among the monks were Carloman, son of Charles Martel; Ratchis, predecessor of the great Lombard Duke and King Aistulf; and Paul the Deacon, the historian of the Lombards.

In 744, a donation of Gisulf II of Benevento created the Terra Sancti Benedicti, the secular lands of the abbacy, which were subject to the abbot and nobody else save the Pope. Thus, the monastery became the capital of a state comprising a compact and strategic region between the Lombard principality of Benevento and the Byzantine city-states of the coast (Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi).

In 883 Saracens sacked and then burned it down, and Abbot Bertharius was killed during the attack. Among the great historians who worked at the monastery, in this period there is Erchempert, whose Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum is a fundamental chronicle of the ninth-century Mezzogiorno.

The façade of the church.

It was rebuilt and reached the apex of its fame in the 11th century under the abbot Desiderius (abbot 1058 - 1087), who later became Pope Victor III. The number of monks rose to over two hundred, and the library, the manuscripts produced in the scriptorium and the school of manuscript illuminators became famous throughout the West. The unique Beneventan script flourished there during Desiderius' abbacy.

The buildings of the monastery were reconstructed on a scale of great magnificence, artists being brought from Amalfi, Lombardy, and even Constantinople to supervise the various works. The abbey church, rebuilt and decorated with the utmost splendor, was consecrated in 1071 by Pope Alexander II. A detailed account of the abbey at this date exists in the Chronica monasterii Cassinensis by Leo of Ostia and Amatus of Monte Cassino gives us our best source on the early Normans in the south.

Abbot Desiderius sent envoys to Constantinople some time after 1066 to hire expert Byzantine mosaicists for the decoration of the rebuilt abbey church. According to chronicler Leo of Ostia the Greek artists decorated the apse, the arch and the vestibule of the basilica. Their work was admired by contemporaries but was totally destroyed in later centuries except two fragments depicting greyhounds (now in the Monte Cassino Museum). "The abbot in his wisdom decided that great number of young monks in the monastery should be thoroughly initiated in these arts" - says the chronicler about the role of the Greeks in the revival of mosaic art in medieval Italy.

Monte Cassino in ruins after Allied bombing in February 1944

An earthquake damaged the Abbey in 1349, and although the site was rebuilt it marked the beginning of a long period of decline. In 1321, Pope John XXII made the church of Monte Cassino a cathedral, and the carefully preserved independence of the monastery from episcopal interference was at an end. In 1505 the monastery was joined with that of St. Justina of Padua.

The site was sacked by Napoleon's troops in 1799 and from the dissolution of the Italian monasteries in 1866, Monte Cassino became a national monument.

During the Battle of Monte Cassino (January - May 1944) the Abbey made up one section of the 100 mile Gustav line, which was a defensive German line designed to hold the Allied attackers from advancing any further into Italy during World War Two. It stretched from coast to coast and the monastery was one of the key strongholds overlooking highway 6 and blocking the path to Rome. On February 15, 1944 the abbey was almost completely destroyed in a series of heavy American led air-raids. It has been argued in fact that the Abbey was being used as a refuge from the battle by the women and children and was only occupied by German troops after the bombing.^[2] However many reports from troops on the ground suggest that in fact Germans were occupying the monastery, and it was considered a key observational post by all those who were fighting in the field.^[3] The bombing only served to aid the Germans as it reduced the monastery to a pile of ruins which provided excellent defensive cover. The Germans held the position until withdrawing on May 17, 1944, having repulsed four main offensives by the New Zealanders, British Indian regiment and Polish troops. Allied forces broke the line between 11 and 17 May and were finally able to take command of the ruins on May 18. The Abbey was rebuilt after the war; Pope Paul VI reconsecrated it in 1964.

The archives contained some 1400 irreplaceable manuscript codices, chiefly patristic and historical, besides a vast number of documents relating to the history of the abbey. They also contained the collections of the Keats-Shelley Memorial House in Rome which had been sent to the abbey for safety in December 1942.

By great foresight on the part of Lt.Col. Julius Schlegel (a Roman Catholic), a Viennese-born German officer, and Captain Maximilian Becker (a Protestant), both from the Panzer-Division Hermann Göring, these were all transferred to the Vatican at the beginning of the battle.^[4]

Burials[link]

• Saint Apollinaris, abbot of Montecassino, feast day on November 27
• Saint Benedict
• Cardinal Domenico Bartolini (1813–87)
• Saint John Gradenigo
• Saint Bertharius, abbot of Montecassino
• Saint Scholastica
• Sigelgaita of Salerno

Other places called Monte Cassino[link]

• A mountain near Ciechanow, Poland on which a 100-metre tall radio tower stands [1]

See also[link]

• San Giovanni in Venere
• San Liberatore a Maiella
• The Cassino Band of Northumbria Army Cadet Force
• Polish cemetery at Monte Cassino
• Battle of Monte Cassino

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Atkinson, Rick (2007). The Day of Battle: the War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 978-0-8050-6289-2. 
• Bloch, Herbert (1986), Monte Cassino in the Middle Ages, Rome 
• Christie, Neil (2006), From Constantine to Charlemagne: An Archaeology of Italy AD 300–800, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 1-85928-421-3 
• Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Monte Cassino

• Abbey of Monte Cassino
• Guided Visits & Tours to Monte Cassino, WWII war related sites
• MilitaryImages.Net Pictures and discussion about Monte Cassino
• Monte Cassino foto e contatti
• Satellite photo from Google Maps
• Illustrated article on the Battle of Monte Cassino at Battlefields Europe
• The Monte Cassino Society

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Coordinates: 41°29′24″N 13°48′50″E / 41.49°N 13.81389°E / 41.49; 13.81389

Cassino
—  Comune  —
Città di Cassino
The town of Cassino from the upper part of the town.
Coat of arms
Cassino Location of Cassino in Italy
Coordinates: 41°30′N 13°50′E / 41.5°N 13.833°E / 41.5; 13.833
Country	Italy
Region	Lazio
Province	Frosinone (FR)
Frazioni	Caira, Montecassino, San Cesareo, San Michele, San Pasquale, Sant'Angelo in Theodice, Sant'Antonino, San Bartolomeo
Government
• Mayor	Giuseppe Golini Petrarcone
Area
• Total	82.77 km2 (31.96 sq mi)
Elevation	40 m (130 ft)
Population (1 January 2011)
• Total	33,153
• Density	400/km2 (1,000/sq mi)
Demonym	Cassinati
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	03043
Dialing code	0776
Patron saint	St. Benedict
Website	Official website

For other meanings, see Cassino (disambiguation)

Cassino is a comune in the province of Frosinone, Italy, at the southern end of the region of Lazio.

Cassino is located at the foot of Monte Cairo near the confluence of the Gari and Liri rivers. The city is best known as the site of the Abbey of Montecassino and the Battle of Monte Cassino during World War II, which resulted in tremendous Allied and German casualties as well as the near total destruction of the town itself. Today, Cassino is also home to the University of Cassino and a FIAT automotive plant.

History[link]

Cassino's origins lie in the Volscan settlement of Casinum, at the base of the nearby Monte Cairo. Casinum passed under the control of the Samnites, but the Romans eventually gained control of Casinum, establishing a colony there in 312 BC. At least once during Punic Wars, Hannibal passed near Casinum. Casinum was also the site of a villa belonging to Marcus Terentius Varro.

The modern town which arose on the site of the ancient town of Casinum was called San Germano, but on 28 July 1863 the name was officially reverted to "Cassino".

The terrain is characterized by rolling green hills, vineyards, and rivers [1]. Because of its valley location, it is often foggy in the winter, with chilly rainfall. Summers are generally quite warm and humid.

The site of fierce fighting during the Battles of Monte Cassino during World War II, the old town was almost completely destroyed and was rebuilt south-east of its prior location in a relatively short space of time. Because of this, and despite the recent construction of a large number of new roads and roundabouts, the town has a somewhat disorderly road network. The city is developing commercially as well, following the construction of many shopping centres in the environs, which, however, also increase traffic congestion, particularly on the roads leading into the city.

Main sights[link]

• Abbey of Monte Cassino
• Natural park of the Varronian Baths, located in the area Varro's villa
• Rocca Janula, a castle overlooking the city, which was one of Abbey's historical strongholds
• Cassino War Cemetery
• Roman remains of a theatre, an amphitheatre and the Mausoleum of Ummidia Quadratilla

Twin cities[link]

• Berlin, Germany, since 1969
• Zamość, Poland, since 1969
• Falaise, France, since 1974
• Tychy, Poland, since 1977
• Užice, Serbia since 1981
• North York, Canada, since 1987
• Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, since 1991
• Ortona, Italy, since 1991
• Casino, Australia, since 1997
• Cavarzere, Italy, since 1998
• Senglea, Malta, since 2003
• Leno, Italy, since 2005
• Olinda, Brazil, since 2006

Sports[link]

Cassino's football team plays in the Italian Serie C2.

People[link]

• Antonio Labriola (1843–1904), philosopher
• Gino Matrundola (born 1940), former Canadian politician
• Vittorio Miele (1926–1999), painter
• Michael Valente (1895–1976), World War I Medal of Honor recipient
• Arturo Gatti (1972–2009), Canadian professional boxer
• Edoardo Grossi (born 1959), environmentalist

See also[link]

• Abbey of Monte Cassino
• Battle of Cassino
• Cassino Memorial

External links[link]

• Historiale Museum of Cassino (Italian) (English) (German) (French) (Polish)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cassino