The Benedictine monastery, stormed by the Lombards in 589, the Saracens in 884, and the Normans in 1030 and temporarily 8️⃣ deserted, was each time refounded on the original site. The parent house of Western monasticism, it was during the Middle 8️⃣ Ages an outstanding centre of the arts and of learning. Paul the Deacon (c. 720–799) wrote his history of the 8️⃣ Lombards there, founding a long tradition of historical scholarship; and the radical reconstruction of the abbey in the 11th century 8️⃣ by the abbot Desiderius (later Pope Victor III) was a major event in the history of Italian architecture. In 1349 8️⃣ the buildings suffered from a severe earthquake, and the church and monastery were almost entirely rebuilt in the 16th and 8️⃣ 17th centuries.
During World War II (1944) Cassino was a key point in the German winter defensive line (Garigliano-Sangro) blocking the 8️⃣ Allied advance to Rome. At the beginning of January 1944 the U.S. 5th Army won a position facing Cassino across 8️⃣ the Garigliano River. Heroic fighting by Allied troops met heroic German resistance in three savage battles. On February 15 the 8️⃣ Allies bombed and demolished the Benedictine monastery, erroneously believing that the Germans had occupied and fortified it. Actually, the Germans 8️⃣ were able to remove both the monks and the treasures of the abbey; and, after the bombardment ceased, they in 8️⃣ fact occupied and fortified the ruins. A month later Allied aircraft dropped 1,400 tons of bombs on Cassino, leaving the 8️⃣ town so heaped with rubble that tanks could not operate until bulldozers cleared paths for them. Finally in mid-May the 8️⃣ Allies did break through German lines and, joined a few days later by forces bursting out of the Anzio beachhead, 8️⃣ were able to take Rome. German and Allied war cemeteries, still visited by thousands annually, mark the scenes of the 8️⃣ fighting.
After the war, both the town and the abbey were rebuilt on their previous sites, the town on a completely 8️⃣ new plan, the abbey following substantially the lines of its predecessor. Little or nothing of the abbey’s decorative detail was 8️⃣ recoverable, but the famous bronze doors, cast in Constantinople for the abbot Desiderius in 1066, were found and restored. The 8️⃣ archives, library, and some paintings were saved. Of ancient Casinum the only monuments of note are the amphitheatre, the theatre, 8️⃣ and the ruins of the Cappella del Crocifisso, a Roman mausoleum converted into a church in the 10th century. Of 8️⃣ the medieval town little more than the site of the upper town, clustered around the ruins of Rocca Ianula, can 8️⃣ be discerned.
An agricultural and commercial centre, Cassino manufactures toys. Pop. (2006 est.) mun., 32,603.
