Alba Longa

Alba Longa was a city in ancient Latium (Italy ), about 20 kilometers south-east of Rome, on the west shore of Lake Albano ( Albano ), on the rocky ridge of the Alban Hills. One suspects that today's Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Popes, Alba Longa corresponds.

In Roman mythology, is the foundation of the city to Ascanius, son of the Trojan Aeneas, around the year 1152 returned to BC. The city has long been the cultural center and capital of the ancient Latinerbundes. The legend of the founding of Rome by the two were exposed twins Romulus and Remus, sons of Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin, and of the war god Mars. Rhea Silvia was the daughter of the king of Alba Longa, Numitor Silvius. Insofar Alba Longa is considered the mother city of Rome.

The legendary ( there are not historical fact ) third king of Rome, Tullus Hostilius is said to have destroyed in 665 BC Alba Longa and on the settled its residents Caelius in Rome.

The ancient Roman patrician family of Julius, with its best-known representatives Gaius Julius Caesar was originally from Alba Longa.