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Ceccano is on a hill overlooking the Sacco Valley and is crossed by rivers Sacco and Cosa.
It is an ancient settlement and before the Romans the city was inhabited by the Volsci on the same site as the present city. The Vosci utilized the boulders from the local limestone for its construction and built a top esplanade, Acropolis, with terraces on the sides of the hill surrounded by polygonal walls that still crop up in places.
Ceccano was called Fabrateria Vetus and, having previously opposed Rome, joined the city in the wars against the Sunnis, and subsequently becoming a centre of some importance. The Romans moved the town centre to the lower part where they put the main roads and built a bridge over the river Sacco.
The current name of Ceccano dates from the seventh century and is due the homage of the inhabitants to Petronio Ceccano, consul of Campagna and father of Pope Honorius I, in gratitude for the many benefits received.
During the Middle Ages Ceccano acquired great strategic importance because it is located at the borders of the Papal State. Like many centres, the village was formed by the people who sought refuge from the Barbarians hiding themselves on a hill around an old castrum and a church. The town has since developed following a road system in concentric rings.
Shortly before the eleventh century, some counts of Campagna settled in Ceccano which became the nerve centre of a vast county that lasted steadily for about five centuries.
According to several historians, such as Ferdinand Gregorovius, the de Ceccano counts could have a Germanic origin, they arrived with the Barbarian invasions, and they would then intermarried with the Roman nobility by taking the name of the territory in which they settled.
Towards the middle of the fifteenth century, with the disappearance of the last heir, Ceccano became part of the fief of the princes of the Colonna family and remained that way until the early nineteenth century.
In the seventeenth century, Marcantonio Colonna, a descendant of the hero of Lepanto, granted the town the first City Charter.
With the coming of Napoleon, the “French” authorities built a large and modern bridge over the river Sacco. The bridge made a new strategic position of Ceccano and increased commercial traffic in the area.
When, in 1816, the Colonna gave up the feudal rights to Ceccano, their possessions became part of the Papal States, the Apostolic Delegation of Frosinone, only to be purchased by the Marquis Filippo Berardi. The Marquis was a key figure in Ceccanese history of the last two centuries, and changed the urban planning of the city with the construction of the railway station, a large high school gymnasium and an industrial zone in the downstream area (Borgo Berardi).
During World War II, Ceccano has suffered over thirty bombing raids by the US aircraft as it was in a strategic position near the fighting front of Cassino and had a railway station and munitions factory.


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Liceo Scientifico Via Fabrateria Vetus

                        Country:     Italy
                           Area:     60 km2 (20 sq mi)   
                           Elevation:  200 m (700 ft)
                           Population: 23,504
       Distance from Rome:  97 Km/60 miles   - 1h by car / 1h 50m by train
       Distance from Naples:  146 Km/92.75 miles   - 1h 40m by car