Fondi

Sister cities

• Dachau
• Wodzisław Śląski
• Mangalia

History

Fondi has an ancient history, beginning with early settlements about 1000 BC: later the area was settled by the Italic tribes of Aurunci and, subsequently, Volsci. According to the legend, it would have been founded by Hercules in memory of the killing of Cacus. The first historical reference to Fondi dates to 338 BC, at the time of the Latin War, when its inhabitants (together with those of the nearby Formia) gained minor Roman citizenship status (civitas sine suffragio). After a failed attempt of revolt led by Vitruvius Vaccus (330 BC), Fondi remained a Roman prefecture; later (188 BC) it received full citizenship, with a government led by 3 aediles. The importance of Fondi lay in its position across the old Via Appia. Begun in 312 BC, it was for more than two millennia the main roadway from Rome to southern Italy. Today the historical centre and surrounding wall of Fondi still form a square, as in the Roman camp walls, whose decumanus was formed by the city tract of the Via Appia. Pope Soter was born in the city around the turn of the first and second centuries. After the Gothic War and the Lombard conquest of Italy, Fondi remained a dominion of the Eastern Roman Empire. Later a part of the Papal States, in 846 it was burnt out by the Saracens coming from their fortress of Garigliano: they settled there until they were defeated in the Battle of Circeus of 877, and Fondi was passed to the Duchy of Gaeta. In 1140 Fondi passed to the Dell'Aquila family, of Norman heritage, and then, in 1299, to the powerful Caetani barons (in the person of Loffredo Caetani, nephew of Pope Boniface VIII), who for two centuries made Fondi the centre of their power, and a centre of artistic development as well. Here in 1378 the powerful Count Onorato I Caetani summoned the conclave…

Geography

Fondi is the main town of the Plain of Fondi (Piana di Fondi in Italian), a small plain between the Ausoni and Aurunci mountains and the Tyrrhenian Sea. The plain includes three lakes and is agriculturally very fertile. Most in evidence are greenhouses for the production of early crops for sale in Rome. The long sandy beach stretches from Sperlonga in the south-east to Terracina in the north-west and lies along the Gulf of Gaeta, with views (when the weather is clear) to the Pontine Islands. It is marked by a somehow well-preserved, typical Mediterranean coastal dune landscape. The territory of Fondi is partially included in the Regional Natural Park of Monti Aurunci.

Most-observed species

• Yellow-legged Gull

  Larus michahellis J.F.Naumann, 1840 · Aves
  123
• Mastic Tree

  Pistacia lentiscus L. · Magnoliopsida
  95
• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  83
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  74
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  68
• Black Redstart

  Phoenicurus ochruros (S.G.Gmelin, 1774) · Aves
  63
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  61
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  59

Most recent

• M 4.1 — 2026-05-21
  1 km SSW of Bacoli, Italy
• M 6 — 2026-03-09
  16 km SSE of Sant'Angelo, Italy
• M 4.1 — 2025-11-18
  16 km ESE of Ventotene, Italy
• M 4 — 2025-05-13
  2 km N of Bacoli, Italy
• M 2.7 — 2025-05-08
  1 km NNE of Montecompatri, Italy
• M 3.2 — 2025-03-15
  7 km SE of Procida, Italy