Casamari Abbey is one of the most important Italian monasteries of Cistercian Gothic architecture and is located near Veroli, in the province of Frosinone. It was built in 1203 on the ruins of the ancient Roman municipality called Cereatae, because it was dedicated to the goddess Ceres. The name Casamari derives from the Latin language and means "House of Mario", homeland of Gaius Mario, famous leader, seven times consul and opponent of Silla in the civil war of 88 BC With the decline of the Roman Empire and the subsequent barbarian invasions Cereatae it suffered the same fate as the decay of Rome, until the Benedictine monks settled in the place in the 11th century and founded the abbey on the remains of a temple dedicated to Mars. This abbey complex represents one of the few models still intact of the spatial organization envisaged by Bernard of Clairvaux, great reformer of the Benedictine order. In the large abbey complex, there is also a well-stocked library, a museum-art gallery, where Roman furnishings, paintings by Carassi, Guercino, Sassoferrato, Serodine, Balbi, Purificato and Fantuzzi are kept.