Province of Latina

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Province of Latina
Flag of The Province of Latina.svg
Provincia di Latina-Stemma.svg
Latina in Italy.svg
Map highlighting the location of the province of Latina in Italy
CountryFlag of Italy.svg  Italy
Region Lazio
Capital(s) Latina
Comuni 33
Government
  PresidentGerardo Stefanelli (IV)
Area
  Total2,251 km2 (869 sq mi)
Population
 (2012)
  Total561,189
  Density250/km2 (650/sq mi)
GDP
[1]
  Total€12.524 billion (2015)
  Per capita€21,844 (2015)
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
  Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
04100
Telephone prefix0773, 06, 0771
Vehicle registration LT
ISTAT 059
Website Official website

The province of Latina (Italian : provincia di Latina) is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its provincial capital is the city of Latina. It is bordered by the provinces of Frosinone to the northeast and by the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital to the northwest.

Contents

It has an area of 2,251 square kilometres (869 sq mi) and a population of 561,189 (2012). The province contains comuni (sg.: comune ). [2]

Sub-divisions of the province

The most populous comuni are:

ComunePopulation
Latina 128,810
Aprilia 74,691
Terracina 46,245
Fondi 39,773
Formia 38,264
Cisterna di Latina 36,742
Sezze 24,866
Gaeta 20,936
Sabaudia 20,305
Minturno 19,816
Pontinia 14,883
Priverno 14,452
Cori 11,108
Itri 10,724
Sermoneta 10,155
San Felice Circeo 10,018
Sonnino 7,548
Santi Cosma e Damiano 6,889
Monte San Biagio 6,322

History

The province of Latina was founded on 18 December 1934, encompassing mainly the drained areas of the Agro Pontino previously part of the province of Rome. Apart from the Pontine lands, it includes the Aurunci, Lepini and Ausoni mountain ranges, as well as the Pontine islands archipelago. The port of Gaeta and Formia, in the southernmost part of the province, belonged traditionally and linguistically to Campania.

In Bronze Age, complex permanent settlement systems and functionally differentiated societies developed in the Pontine region. This included preparation of fish and salt at the coast and metallurgy slightly inland. [3] Late Iron Age fortified settlements evolved on the Alban hills and Monti Lepini. Small-scale farming and urbanisation developed only in or right before the Roman Age with transhumant pastoralism still continuing. From 350 BC onwards, the colonies of Cora (Cori), Norba and Setia (Sezze) were built. The small peasant economy was gradually replaced by large specialised latifundia.

Geography

Although the smallest of the provinces in the Lazio region, the province of Latina includes a variety of geographical and historical areas.

Hill and mountain areas

The mainland area is, in the south- and north-eastern part, mostly occupied by limestone hills and mountains. Ranges include the Lepini, Aurunci, Ausoni. The highest elevation is that of 1,533-metre (5,030 ft) Monte Petrella (Aurunci). The climate is semi-continental with hot summers and cold winters; temperatures rarely fall below 0 °C (32 °F). The mountains are characterized by small medieval settlements (borghi) and traditionally live of cattle raising and agriculture; however, these activities saw a marked decline in recent times, and today workers usually commute daily to work in Rome or Latina. Tourism is an increasing interesting resource, attracted especially by the uncontaminated nature and by artistic traces of the Middle Ages (Abbeys of Valvisciolo and Fossanova, where St. Thomas Aquinas died). The main centres of this area are Cori, Sezze, and Priverno.

Agro Pontino

The Agro Pontino occupies the plain extending southwards from Aprilia to Terracina, along the Tyrrhenian Sea. Until the 1930s, it was covered by unhealthy marshes, which were dried up under Fascist government; the area as subsequently settled by immigrants coming from north-eastern Italy, in newly built cities like Sabaudia or Latina itself. The sole mountain peak is that of Circeo promontory. The climate is mild. The Agro Pontino is the most economically developed part of the province, housing a flourishing agricultural sector and numerous service firms and industries. It also houses much of the water basins of the province, like the coast Lakes of Fogliano, Caprolace, and Paola.

Apart the capital, the main cities include Cisterna di Latina, Terracina, Sabaudia.

Linguistic map of Southern Lazio: Central Italian in pink and Southern Italian (Neapolitan language) in magenta Lazio meridionale dialetti.jpg
Linguistic map of Southern Lazio: Central Italian in pink and Southern Italian (Neapolitan language) in magenta

Formia and Gaeta

Cities rich of ancient and medieval history, Gaeta and Formia were traditionally part of the Kingdom of Naples. They belonged to the Campania region until 1934. Traces of the different cultural milieu can be identified in the costumes and, most of all, in the local dialect, a variant of Neapolitan. Formia and Gaeta constitutes a single metropolitan area with an important port (with connection to the Pontine Islands), a station on the main railway line Rome-Naples. Other important centres include Sperlonga and Minturno.

Pontine Islands

Once mainly used as penitentiaries, the Pontine Islands are now a renowned tourist resort in summer. The only inhabited islands are Ponza and Ventotene.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Circeo</span> Mountain in Italy

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Formia is a city and comune in the province of Latina, on the Mediterranean coast of Lazio, Italy. It is located halfway between Rome and Naples, and lies on the Roman-era Appian Way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fondi</span> Comune in Lazio, Italy

Fondi is a city and comune in the province of Latina, Lazio, central Italy, halfway between Rome and Naples. As of 2017, the city had a population of 39,800. The city has experienced steady population growth since the early 2000s, though this has slowed in recent years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Province of Frosinone</span> Province of Italy

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terracina</span> Comune in Lazio, Italy

Terracina is an Italian city and comune of the province of Latina, located on the coast 56 km (35 mi) southeast of Rome on the Via Appia. The site has been continuously occupied since antiquity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontine Marshes</span> Former marshland near Rome, Italy

The Pontine Marshes is an approximately quadrangular area of former marshland in the Lazio Region of central Italy, extending along the coast southeast of Rome about 45 km (28 mi) from just east of Anzio to Terracina, varying in distance inland between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Volscian Mountains from 15 to 25 km. The northwestern border runs approximately from the mouth of the river Astura along the river and from its upper reaches to Cori in the Monti Lepini.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latina, Lazio</span> Comune in Lazio, Italy

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sperlonga</span> Comune in Lazio, Italy

Sperlonga is a coastal town in the province of Latina, Italy, about halfway between Rome and Naples. It is best known for the ancient Roman sea grotto discovered in the grounds of the Villa of Tiberius containing the important and spectacular Sperlonga sculptures, which are displayed in a museum on the site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latium Adjectum</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sabaudia</span> Comune in Lazio, Italy

Sabaudia is a coastal town in the province of Latina, Lazio, in central Italy. Sabaudia's centre is characterised by several examples of Fascist architecture. Villa Volpi, a neoclassical seaside villa built for Countess Nathalie Volpi of Misurata, is located on the sand dunes of Sabaudia.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santi Cosma e Damiano, Lazio</span> Comune in Lazio, Italy

Santi Cosma e Damiano is a town and comune in the province of Latina, in the Lazio region of central Italy, whose territory is located partly in the Monti Aurunci area and partly in the Garigliano plain.

Pontinia is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Latina in the Italian region Lazio, located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) southeast of Rome and about 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Latina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aurunci Mountains</span> Mountain range in Italy

The Monti Aurunci is a mountain range of southern Lazio, in central Italy. It is part of the Antiappennini, a group running from the Apennines chain to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where it forms the promontory of Gaeta. It is bounded to the north-west by the Ausoni Mountains, to the north by the Liri river, to the east by the Ausente, to the south-east by the Garigliano and to the south by the Tyrrhenian sea. The line between the Aurunci and the Ausoni has not been clearly established but the Aurunci are considered by convention to be east of a line through Fondi, Lenola, Pico, S. Giovanni and Incarico. Altitudes vary from hills to the 1,533 m of Monte Petrella. Main peaks include the Redentore (1,252 m) and Monte Sant'Angelo (1,402 m). They include a regional park, the Parco Naturale dei Monti Aurunci, created in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monti Lepini</span> Mountain range in Italy

The Monti Lepini are a mountain range which belongs to the Anti-Apennines of the Lazio region of central Italy, between the two provinces of Latina and Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lago di Fondi</span> Lagoon in Province of Latina, Lazio

Lake Fondi is a brackish lake about 90 km (56 mi) to the southeast of Rome in the Province of Latina, Lazio, Italy, in the region called Sud or "South" Pontino, the western end of which is the Piana di Fondi, "Plain of Fondi". The plain is a basin below the arc of the Monti Ausoni and the Monti Lepini. The lake forms naturally at the west end of the basin in a depression constantly filling with spring water exuding from the base of the mountains, which are a heavily cracked and faulted limestone karst absorbent of most rainfall. In addition to the flows from springs, a number of canals have been constructed from regions of the marsh below sea level to drain water from the marsh into the lake. Pumping stations are required to lift the water into the canals. Before the marsh was reclaimed the lake was part of it. Canals at either end of the lake connect it to the Tyrrhenian Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Formia-Gaeta railway station</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">FL7 (Lazio regional railways)</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strada statale 148 Pontina</span>

Strada statale 148 Pontina , previously known as Strada regionale 148 Pontina , is a highway that connects Rome to Terracina, passing through Latina and through the localities of Pomezia, Ardea in the Metropolitan City of Rome and for Aprilia, Pontinia and Sabaudia in province of Latina.

References

  1. Regions and Cities > Regional Statistics > Regional Economy > Regional Gross Domestic Product (Small regions TL3), OECD.Stats. Accessed on 16 November 2018.
  2. Statistics of Italy
  3. van Joolen, Ester. "Parco Nazionale del Circeo" (PDF). University of Groningen. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
  4. Pellegrini's map Archived 2009-10-12 at the Wayback Machine

41°28′3.35″N12°54′13.32″E / 41.4675972°N 12.9037000°E / 41.4675972; 12.9037000