The city is best known as the site of the Abbey of Montecassino and the Battle of Monte Cassino during World War II, which resulted in huge Allied and German casualties as well as the near total destruction of the town itself.

[6] During the Roman era the most venerated god was Apollo, whose temple rose up on Monte Cassino, where today stands the abbey.

The book Dialogues, Pope Gregory I gives us the testimony of the Benedict of Nursia settlement among the ruins of Casinum Acropolis.

From that moment on, he would never leave Monte Cassino: he founded the monastery that became a model for the Western monasticism and one of the major cultural centers of Europe throughout the Middle Ages and wrote the "Rule", containing precepts for his monks.

In 577 a raid of the Lombards, led by Zotto, forced the monks to leave Monte Cassino to seek refuge in Rome.

In 744, thanks to the donation of Gisulf II of Benevento, the monastery became the capital of a new state, called Terra Sancti Benedicti ("Land of Saint Benedict").

Few years later the town was re-founded by Abbot Bertharius and called Eulogimenopolis, meaning "city of Saint Benedict" in Greek.

The abbey was again rebuilt in 949 by the decision of Pope Agapetus II and, together with the town, renamed San Germano (after Saint Germanus of Capua), began to experience a prosperous period.

The abbey of San Germano had ceased to exist by the time of Abbot Richerius (1038–1055), when it was a parish church under an archpriest.

[10] On July 23, 1230, the city was the site of the signing of the peace between Pope Gregory IX and Frederick II, which took place in the church of San Germano.

On May 15–17, 1815, the town was the set of the final cruel battle of the Neapolitan War between an Austrian force commanded by Laval Nugent von Westmeath and the King of Naples, Joachim Murat.

On May 21, 1930 a cable car leading from the town to the Abbey in 7 minutes, covering a vertical drop of over 400 metres, was inaugurated.

The Allies, believing that the Abbey was a strategic position occupied by the Germans, bombed it, killing many of the people who had taken refuge.

On 15 March, the town was completely razed to the ground by aerial bombardment and artillery fire, followed by an unsuccessful Allied attack.

Founded by St. Benedict in 529, the Abbey of Monte Cassino is one of the most famous monasteries in the world and is the source of the Benedictine Order.

[13] Being in a crossroads among the regions Lazio, Campania, Abruzzo and Molise, Cassino has always been a strategic hub for transports and communications.