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The Benedictine
monastery, stormed
by the Lombards in
589, the Saracens in
884, and the Normans
in 1030 and
temporarily deserted,
was each time
refounded on the
original site.
During
World War II
(1944) Cassino was a
key point in the
German winter
defensive line (Garigliano-Sangro)
blocking the Allied
advance to Rome. At
the beginning of
January 1944 the
U.S. 5th Army won a
position facing
Cassino across the
Garigliano River.
Heroic fighting by
Allied troops met
heroic German
resistance in three
savage
battles. On
February 15 the
Allies bombed and
demolished the
Benedictine
monastery,
erroneously
believing that the
Germans had occupied
and fortified it.
Actually, the
Germans were able to
remove both the
monks and the
treasures of the
abbey; and, after
the bombardment
ceased, they in fact
occupied and
fortified the ruins.
A month later Allied
aircraft dropped
1,400 tons of bombs
on Cassino, leaving
the town so heaped
with rubble that
tanks could not
operate until
bulldozers cleared
paths for them.
Finally in mid-May
the Allies did break
through German lines
and, joined a few
days later by forces
bursting out of the
Anzio beachhead,
were able to take
Rome.
German and Allied
war cemeteries,
still visited by
thousands annually,
mark the scenes of
the fighting.
After the war, both
the town and the
abbey were rebuilt
on their previous
sites, the town on a
completely new plan,
the abbey following
substantially the
lines of its
predecessor. Little
or nothing of the
abbey’s decorative
detail was
recoverable, but the
famous bronze doors,
cast in
Constantinople for
the abbot Desiderius
in 1066, were found
and restored. The
archives, library,
and some paintings
were saved. Of
ancient Casinum the
only monuments of
note are the
amphitheatre, the
theatre, and the
ruins of the
Cappella del
Crocifisso, a Roman
mausoleum converted
into a church in the
10th century. Of the
medieval town little
more than the site
of the upper town,
clustered around the
ruins of Rocca
Ianula, can be
discerned. |
