Colle San Magno

Colle San Magno is a small village, with just over 600 inhabitants, located at an altitude of 540 meters on the western slopes of Monte Cairo, the northern side of Monte Asprano, overlooking the rounded peaks of Ciamurro, Grotta, Forcella, Monticello, and Occhio. It can be reached by climbing the winding roads that start from the municipality of Roccasecca. It is part of the Liri Mountain Community. It takes its name from Magno of Aquino, a saint and martyr of the Church who worked for the evangelization of the southern Lazio area. Its existence is very ancient. Legend has it that the village was raided and the women abducted (the abduction of Varciosa) by the Volsci people in the 5th century BC, an event still remembered on March 15. During the management of the territory by the Abbey of Montecassino in the 10th century, it was called Collis Sancti Mandi. It later became a fief of the Standards in 1407 and of the Marquis d’Avalos in 1504. Towards the end of the 16th century, it passed to Duke Giacomo Boncompagni, who then ceded it in 1796 to the Kingdom of Naples.

Its village retains medieval characteristics, well represented by the Tower that rises in the highest part of the village. Along the road that crosses the village, one can admire beautiful 19th-century palaces, arches, and portals with stone frames, mostly in a semicircular style, with some in elegant pointed arches. Here is the Church of San Magno, dedicated to the patron saint, from which every Monday in Albis the statue of the Madonna departs to reach the rock church located at the top of Monte Asprano, where the famous ceremony of the kiss of the two Madonnas takes place. The other statue comes from Castrocielo.

Colle San Magno, due to its geographical position, played an important role during the Second World War. It served as the rear of the Gustav Line, thus being the place from where weapons and food were sent to German soldiers and where the wounded from the battles arrived for treatment. The route followed is, moreover, an ancient "Path" that connected the Castles that the Abbey had prompted to build to defend the lands managed by the Norman duke of Benevento. In fact, it allows access to the castle of Terelle. Some claim that Saint Benedict also passed through here to reach Montecassino, thus avoiding the dangers of crossing the Liri Valley.

The local caves, which were used by the Germans and partly by the population, served to shelter both from the Allied bombings and from the reconnaissance missions.

Precisely because of this role and the numerous artifacts still found in the area, the Living Museum of Memory was established in 2014, in the historic center. It is organized into six rooms, which allow for the reconstruction of the wartime events based on the direct testimonies of those who lived through those terrible months, between September 1943 and May 1944. "The Museum, through audio and video testimonies, objects and memorabilia spontaneously donated by the population, relives the key phases of the war on Monte Cairo www.museovivodellamemoria.it"