The Origin

In the course of the years the coast had been repeatedly attacked by the Saracens, but the inhabitants holded on and populated from time to time more and more of that area. The contact with the Saracens greatly characterized the culture of the people and after the Saracens' definite withdraw, several customs and traditions had been assumed and partly kept to this very day.

About 700 years ago, the young prince Conradin of Swabia, grandson o Frederick II., landed on the shores of Nettuno in his desperate attempt to escape from his persecuer Charles of Anjou and sought asylum in the tower fortification "Torre Astura". Although picking him up at first, the landlord Giovanni Frangipane extradited the young prince to King Charles who subsequently beheaded him publically in Naples. Gregorovius describes the "Torre Astura" as the Tower of Romance and the seat of German poetry in Italy.

From the 12th century Nettuno became feoff of the Tuscolanipopes and consequently of the Orsini and Colonna families, and then, under Alex VI, property of the Borgias. After being instructed by Pope Alex to build a fortification to defend the coast against the frequent attacks by the Saracene pirates, Antonio da Sangallo erected the Sangallo Fort according the plans of his brother Giuliano. By 1594 Nettuno changed its feudal lords twice: After the Borgiaera it fell into the hands of Carafa, only to become finally Colonna-property again.

Remarkable under a historical and religious point of view is the rescue of the Shrine of our Lady of Grace in the year of 1550. Rescued during the iconoclastic persecution under Henry VIII and surviving a shipwreck in front of the coast of Nettuno, the wooden statue consequently became the inhabitant's patroness.