On the Appia way , nearby Formia, inside a private property, there is a wide wall-mounted fountain of the late republican age that was functional until the 1960s. The bath is situated on a little stretch of the original Appia road, it’s made up of basaltic stones and it’s commonly called “ The Saint Remigius’s fountain” because of the close Church dedicated to the saint in 1490. It owned at the top a sedimentation tank and one for the collecting of water, that let water outcome from two grills, picturing sun and moon, day and night, symbol of the flow of time. At Roman times, thanks to his water, it gave relief and refreshment to travelers and animals but it enjoyed their halt thanks to the view that could be admired by its position: the entire Gaeta Gulf, including Lucio Munazio Planco’s Mausoleum that dominated the promontory of Mount Orlando.
Raffaele Capolino
under the font
Basically, this is what the Podestà Felice Tonetti, the Arch. Gustavo Giovannoni and the Comm. Amedeo Maiuridiscovered in 1931 under the road surface of the ancient Appia , in the section underneath the Monumental Fountain of S.Remigio in Formia. It has been possible for me and my friend Jeanpierre Maggiacomo to reach the site and take pictures of it , thanks to the collaboration of Mr. Novelli, owners of a property below the Roman Fountain at the south side. They are hypogean structures, about twenty meters long and placed at 7/8 meters below the road section of the Regina Viarum. They were built to the disposal of the waste water of this magnificent monumental fountain that is still located in San Remigio in Formia and visible in an old photo of the thirties of the last century, as posted in the comments section. Some of these underground structures were found intact, others had maintenance works needed, surely occurred in the pre-war period, when the stretch of the ancient Appia was widened and moved to give a better qualification to the above mentioned Roman site. On that occasion and for some parts needed to be restored , numerous “volcanic ashlars” belonging to the ancient road section were used. These rooms, as we have been told by several neighbours , were used as “anti-aircraft shelters” during the last but tragic war event, reachable from a hole placed in the east side of the same fountain. That’s another historical-archaeological piece of our town , Formia. A result that has been possible to reach thanks to a file which is kept in the Historical Communal Archive of Formia “Franco Miele”.
Raffaele Capolino
