San Felice Circeo

The area is divided into two clearly defined areas: the promontory being part of the park of Circeo and the plain.

Since the middle of 3000 BC all of Lazio was inhabited by protolatine populations. According to legend here the story of the Odyssey of Ulysses and the sorceress Circe took place. The fame of Circeo with the Greeks suggests that this area was commercially active before Rome.

An interesting note is the strong presence of the Templars in the thirteenth century during the struggles between the pope and the empire. Pope Gregory IX ordered the Knights Templar to take possession of the Circeo fortress to protect the Papal States from the south. It is in this period that the fortress was renamed Castrum Sancti Felicis.