Parco Nazionale del Circeo

The Park

Circeo National Park is situated along the Tyrrhenian coast in the South of Rome, between Anzio and Terracina, and it extends itself for about 8,500 hectares in the Province of Latina, in particular in the Municipalities of Latina, Sabaudia, San Felice Circeo and, for the insular part of the Island of Zannone, Ponza.
Thanks to its establishment when the Pontina area was subject to radical interventions of draining according to the programme of the Integral Reclamation, the whole deforestation of the ancient and inhospitable "Selva di Terracina" was avoided. As a matter of fact, a little part of it was not cut, and together with the Lake of Sabaudia, the Coastal Dune, and the Circeo Promontory it formed the first territorial configuration of the Park. Then Circeo Park has step by step modified the quantity (territorial variations) and the quality (establishment of Nature Reserves and international and environmental awards) of its territorial basis.

Fauna

Given the geographical positioning coinciding with the main migratory routes, and also given the big variety of integral habitats it offers, Circeo National Park, with 25 different species of birds which have been recorded in the census of the last years, has in the avifauna its main faunistic aspect. In particular, among the analysed species, there are several Coots and Cormorants and rare species like the Peregrine, the Osprey, the White-tailed Eagle, the Crane, the Greater Flamingo, the Spoonbill, etc.
On the contrary, as far as mammals are concerned, there are only about 20 species of them. Nowdays there are severals studies and evaluations about the opportunity and the possibility of re-introducing some species, according to the programmes of preservation and global recovery of the natural environments.

Of particular interest is the presence of many Insects, Reptiles (the four-lined snake, the European grass snake, the western whip snake, the slow worm, the asp viper, the European pond turtle, the spur-thighed tortoise), Amphibians (the common toad, the common frog, the newt), and Fishes (in the lakes, the grey mullet, the eel, the bass, the gilthead, the white bream, the sole - in the canals, the carp, the tench, the perch).

In the Park, the fauna is divided according to different habitats, in virtue of a dynamic balance with all the other environmental elements. They coincide with the following five natural environments:

• The Forest houses: the wild boar, the fallow deer, the roe deer, the badger, the fox, the polecat, the hedgehog, the weasel, the bat, the mole, the shrew mouse, the dormouse, the woodcock, the woodpidgeon, the stock dove, the turtle dove, the cuckoo, the owl, the little owl, the tawny owl, the barn owl, the honey buzzard, the buzzard, the kestrel, the hobby, the black kite, the green woodpecker, the great spotted woodpecker, the lesser spotted woodpecker, the thrush, the blackbird, the robin, the nightingale, the dunnock, the great tit, the blue tit, the wren, etc.
  
  
• In the Promontory we find: the fox, the wild boar, the badger, the weasel, the bat, the wild pigeon, the swallow, the pallid swift, the blue rock thrush, the Sardinian warbler, the dartford warbler, the house martin, the sand martin, the shrike, the linnet, the quail, the peregrine, the buzzard, the sparrow-hawk, etc.
  
  
• In the Dune there are: the fox, the wild rabbit, the weasel, the badger, the porcupine, the roller, the hoopoe, the spotted flycatcher, the whitethroat, the blackcap, the serin, the golden oriole, the oystercatcher, seagulls, etc.
  
  
• In the Wetlands can be observed: the fox, the porcupine, the hedgehog, the osprey, the marsh harrier, the red-footed falcon, the lesser kestrel, the short-eared owl, the pheasant, the wigeon, the pintail, the garganey, the shoveler, the pochard, the moorhen, the coot, the plover, the grey plover, the lapwing, the little stint, the curled sandpiper, the ruff, the redshank, the greenshank, the godwit, the curlew, the avocet, the black-winged stilt, the white stork , the grery heron, the red heron, the little egret, etc.
  
  
• In the Island of Zannone, besides several migratory birds which can also be found in the other natural areas, we found the marsh harrier and the peregrine, some important endemic species like lizards, lepidopters, spiders, orthoptera, and a mammal: the mouflon, which was been brought to the island in the 1920s.

Flora

Besides what has been said about the vegetation in the environmental description of the Park, we have the following details about some of the most significative species populating each environment.

• In the Forest, the oak species dominate, from the turkey oak to the common oak, from the holm oak to the coark oak, which cover an underwood rich in ivy and in beautiful cyclamen bloomings;
• in the Promontory, the northern slope is covered by a luxuriant termophilous holm oak forest with a great quantity of strawberry trees, while, on the opposite slope, by the sea, there are the phoenician juniper with its twisted shape caused by the sea-breeze and the European fan palm;
• in the Dune, the consolidation of the sandy substratum against the erosive agents is caused by several species like the cade, whose presence dominates the dune, and the water lily, which can have wonderful and lasting summer bloomings despite of the prohibitive temperatures;
• in the Wetlands, besides some alophilic and lagoonal species surrounding the bank of the lakes and of the marshy areas, the large pastures complete the landscape: they are characterised by the presence of the typical stuft of the rush;
• in the Island of Zannone, between the Mediterranean species typical of the maquis which give the island's landscape a luxuriant appearance with their strong many-coloured bloomings, we notice the presence of some endemic species and of a specimen of chestnut oak, the only one of the island.

Archaelogical and Prehistorical Aspects

The wonderful natural mosaic of the Park is enriched by important prehistorical and archeological finds witnessing man's presence in the Circeo since remote times.
As a matter of fact, the several caves and natural shelters of the promontory are very important archaeological sites in which, in addition to the recovery of a skull of the Neanderthal Man (prof. Blanc, Guattari's Cave, 1939), many other finds are an evidence of the presence of man and of his activities during the prehistoric periods.
The archaeological finds mainly date back to the Roman period, when the great technical ability allowed the realisation of works of residential and hydraulic engineering like the Torre Paula's channel port, or the spa and residential complex of Domitian's Villa, which have been preserved till today.
The Domitian's Villa offers us many artistic finds that have been displayed in several museum, like the Apollo by Kessel and the Fauno with the transverse flute, which decorated the residential and spa rooms of the imperial settlement.