One of the symbols of the city of Nettuno is the Sangallo Fort. It’s a fortress that dominates the coast and is located to the west of the medieval village.
The history of Fort Sangallo di Nettuno
Sangallo Fort was built between 1501 and 1503 by Antonio da Sangallo. It’s based on a design by Giuliano Giamberti, at the behest of Pope Alexander VI and Cesare Borgia, known as Valentino. The fortress defended Nettuno, at the time considered the “granary of Lazio“, from attacks by sea.
Today the building, owned by the municipality, is home to the “Museum of the Allied Landing” and the Antiquarium. Here there are conferences and art exhibitions.
The innovative features of the fortress
The fortress dominates the sea on a quadrangular structure. At the top there are bastions with rounded corners called “muds”. The walls are very thick without battlements. Indeed it was an almost impregnable defensive machine with the possibility of cross-fire towards enemies and with rounded walls to provide better resistance to enemy gunfire. Also a drawbridge protected by a sentry box connects the fort, divided over three floors, to the rest of the city.
Inside the fort, a mighty keep stood in a central position, later expanded with new floors to accommodate a larger garrison. After the Borgias, the Colonnas owned the fort until 1594, when they handed it over to the Apostolic Chamber. After various events, the castle passed to the Borghese princes in 1831. During the years of the fascist period, the meeting of 20 July 1925 between Italy and Yugoslavia took place in the Fort, with Benito Mussolini, for the stipulation of the convention aimed at regulating the conditions of Italians in Dalmatia. Then in the 1930s the castle became the property of Baron Fassini.
