Civitavecchia is the ancient Centumcellae, so called because of the inlets that the rocky coast offered as a shelter for ships.

Civitavecchia is the result of a millennial process of civilization and urbanization of the Lazio region which, just 70 km from Rome, reports the presence and development of social organizations since the Prehistoric age and then reaches the Etruscan, Roman and Medieval ones.

Over the centuries the city has been an urban center of such importance to assume, from the time of ancient Urbe, the name of Port of Rome.

In 1508 Pope Julius II began building a fortress and a wall around the city, which can still be visited today.

 

On 8 March 1999 Civitavecchia received the gold medal for Civil Valor with the motivation of: "A strategically fundamental city for its port on the Mediterranean, during the last world war it was subjected to violent bombings that caused the death of many citizens and the almost destruction of the inhabited area and the port structures. The population, forced to take refuge in the neighboring countries, with the return of peace, faced with pride the difficult work of reconstruction. "