entry June
2010
The Garigliano River
The Garigliano river (n. 5, right)
is in Campania for only 38 km (24 miles) of its total
length of 158 km (98 miles). The complete name of the
entire river is the Liri-Garigliano. It starts way up
at Mt. Camiciola at 1,701 meters (5600 feet) in the
central Apennines near the town of Cappadiocia. As the
Lire river, it flows down into Campania and runs
through the Liri Valley until it picks up a smaller
tributary, the Gari, near the town of
Sant'Apollinare nor far from Cassino. It bends right
almost 90 degrees, is then called the Garigilano, and
flows to the sea, forming the boundary between the two
provinces of Lazio and Campania. It flows into the
Tyrrhenian Sea at Minturno, just south of Gaeta. The
Garigliano has a large hydrographic basin and an
average discharge of 120 m3/sec, greater
than the Volturno.The Garigliano has a number of important military events connected with it. One was "Battle of Garigliano" in 1503 between the Spanish and French over who was going to "inherit" the kingdom of Naples now that the Aragonese dynasty had merged with that of Castille to form the modern nation state of Spain. You might think that Spain would be the logical choice. The French thought otherwise, so they had a war, decided at the Battle of Garigliano. The Spanish won and ruled Naples for two-hundred years, turning the capital city, Naples, into the largest and best defended city in the Spanish Empire. (Details here)
Also, in October 1860, a major battle was fought along the Garigliano between the invading northern armies of Piedmont-Sardinia and the defending force of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples). It was won by the north and was one of the last actions in the process that produced the modern nation state of Italy.
Finally, the name "Cassino" (above) may have tipped off another significant military episode. Indeed, in late 1943, the Liri Valley was nicknamed "Death Valley" by Allied troops trying to break through the endless chain of German defenses just below Monte Cassino. (See this link for a wartime "oral history" account.)
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