Explore Gaeta

The Temple of St. Francis is a church on the slope of Monte Orlando above the old town of Gaeta, founded in 1283 with gifts from Charles II of Anjou beside a convent linked to Francis of Assisi. In the 1850s Giacomo Guarinelli rebuilt it in neo-Gothic style with funds from Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. Its high facade looks out over the Gulf of Gaeta.

Gaeta Cathedral, dedicated to Saints Erasmus and Marcian and to the Assumption, stands near the harbour of the old town on the site of a church begun in the 9th century. Its bell tower was begun in 1148 to a design by Nicolangelo of Rome and received its octagonal top in 1279. The interior was remodelled in the late 18th century; the neo-Gothic facade dates from 1903–1950.

San Giovanni a Mare is a small Romanesque church on the waterfront of Gaeta's old town, built around 1100 on the site of a 10th-century church. A dome on a drum with Byzantine-style marble inlays rises above its plain plastered body. The floor slopes towards the entrance so that seawater could drain out during floods, and 14th-century frescoes survive inside.