COMUNE DI PONTINIA
Inaugurated on 18 December 1935, exactly one year after the first stone was laid, Ponti-nia was named after the region in which it lies. The original town, which is still intact, is much like the other “new towns”, consisting of essential but rigorous buildings placed around the central plaza or nearby; the Palazzo Comunale, which still bears its Fascist in-scriptions, the Post Office, the cinema-theatre, the Casa della Cultura (Cultural Centre), the parish church of S.Anna, the school, the barracks and the aqueduct tower. The Mu-seum La Malaria e la sua Storia, housed in the Centro Culturale, is worth visiting too. The Pontinia territory has many historic sites: the Roma Ad Medias inn (present-day Mesa di Pontinia) at km. 85 of the appian Way, with the 18th century Palazzo della Posta (Post Office) built at the behest of Pope Pius VI, the entrance hall of which houses two lime posts from the ancient Roman Appian Way, and numerous tombstones found in the area, all testify to the ancientness of the area. Near this palazzo is a large ancient Roma mau-soleum, without facing, which according to one intriguing account was built by the freedman Clesippus for himself and his matron Gregaria. Situated in the middle of the Agro Pontino, a short distance from the coastal towns and from the peace and quiet of the villages on the Lepini and Ausoni Mts., Pontinia has maintained its role as the centre of a basically agricultural economy, with industries related to the sector, and a small but growing propension for tourism.
www.comune.pontinia.lt.it
