Parco Nazionale del Circeo
| Parco Nazionale del Circeo | |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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Maquis shrubland with the Mount Circeo promontory in the background.
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Parco del Circeo map
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| Location | Lazio |
| Nearest city | San Felice Circeo |
| Coordinates | 41°14′6″N 13°3′50.4″E / 41.23500°N 13.064000°ECoordinates: 41°14′6″N 13°3′50.4″E / 41.23500°N 13.064000°E |
| Area | 84.40 km2 (32.59 sq mi) |
| Established | 1934 |
| Governing body | Ministero dell'Ambiente |
| http://www.parks.it/parco.nazionale.circeo/Eindex.html | |
The Parco Nazionale del Circeo (English: National Park of Circeo) is an Italian national park founded in 1934. It occupies a strip of coastal land from Anzio to Terracina, including also a sector of forest in the mainland of San Felice Circeo, and the island of Zannone.
The park was established by order of Benito Mussolini, under advice from Senator Raffaele Bastianelli, to preserve the last remains of the Pontine Marshes which were being reclaimed in that period. It is the only national park in Italy to occupy only a plain and coastal area.
The park can be divided into five main habitats: the forest, the promontory, the littoral dune, the humid area and the island of Zannone.
The forest included in the park, occupying a grossly square sector between the SS 148 Pontina state road and the coast of San Felice Circeo, is the last relic of the so-called ancient "Selva di Terracina", once occupying much of what is now the central province of Latina. Now reduced to an area of c. 3,300 hectares, it is anyway the largest plain forest in Italy.
It is characterized by the peculiar piscine ("swimming pools"), temporary marshy areas forming in the autumn season due to the accumulation of rainwater, and the lestre, where once the sparse population built their villages. Vegetation includes maquis shrubland, continental species such as Turkish oak, fraxinus and English oak, as well as typical Mediterranean trees including the holm oak, the bay laurel and the cork oak.
Understory is also rich, featuring common hawthorn, blackthorn, wild apple, pear and strawberry trees, erica, Ruscus aculeatus and numerous others.
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Wikipedia