Venue

The Euromech Colloquium [562] will be held on May 24-28, 2015, in Sperlonga (LT), a picturesque coastal village located between Naples and Rome. The colloquium will take place inside the church of Santa Maria, in the historical centre of Sperlonga which features the typical white houses of a marine settlement. The church was the most important place of worship in the nearest areas from the XII century. It is located at Via Porta Piccola della chiesa, and it can be reached only by foot through a scenic route (walking time, uphill: 10 min).

The ancient town of Sperlonga is a fine touristic destination due to its sandy beaches and clear sea, as well as its cultural interest. The beauty of the place and the mild weather attracted the ancient Romans, who created here some magnificent residences. Among these, the villa of emperor Tiberius was built above a wide natural cave, which was intended to host a precious collection of marble works celebrating the deeds of the Greek epic hero Odysseus (renamed Ulysses by Livius Andronicus, who translated in Latin the Homer’s masterpiece). The presence in the area of many marine caves (“speluncae”, in Latin) like the one used by Tiberius determined the current name of the village.

The current settlement on the hill of San Magno was funded after the fall of the Roman Empire, when the local population sought protection from both the diseases of the marshes and the attacks of the pirates from the Tyrrenian sea. For the latter reason, several lookout towers were built along the shore. Nevertheless, the small town was destroyed in August 1534 by the hordes of Kaireddin Barbarossa. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Sperlonga assumed the current layout shaped as a tortoise and was enriched with churches and palaces. Only recently, in the 1960's, it became a popular touristic site due to the completion of the road works that connected it to the other cities along the littoral.