At the foot of the northern side of the promontory is the historic Brecciaro Quarry, where the stone and gravel used in the great works of the reclamation of the Agro Pontino were extracted.
Like other quarries in the area, at the start of the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes this quarry was used by the Piscinara Reclamation Consortium (1930). Material (mainly stone and gravel) was extracted here for the huge water-control works and for building the farmhouses and the roads of the new towns founded at that time. We are at the foot of the side called “Quarto Freddo” (the northern side), more precisely at the base of the Guardia Orlando hill (162 m). The Circeo promontory, whose highest point is the Summit of Circe (541 m above sea level), has six peaks and, on its eastern side, three hills: Peretto, Guardia Orlando and Monticchio. The northern side is generally less steep, facing the Pontine plain and covered in evergreen woodland, while the southern side, sunny and exposed to sea winds, is covered in Mediterranean scrub. Used intensively until the 1950s, the quarry has now been partly recolonised by native vegetation. Look out for a cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) that has chosen to grow right on the quarry face, on the rock wall at a fair height, making use of one of the pockets where a little soil and water have allowed it to take root. You can also admire the flowering of wild orchids, rare plants of the genus Ophrys, one of the species protected under regional law L.R. 61/74, which grow in large numbers at this evocative site.
