Where the Belvedere («La Ringhiera») in Piazza Marconi is today stood the village’s old cemetery, attached to the Parish Church of San Felice Circeo dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel or of Suffrage. The church and cemetery occupied a raised, enclosed area; the church was run by the Confraternity of Suffrage.
The cemetery consisted of a series of large stones covering mass graves. At first the graves were divided between dead men, women, children and priests; later a single grave was used for all the dead. At the end of the 18th century the administrators decided to create a new cemetery outside the town walls, because the mass grave gave off foul smells and exposed the inhabitants to the risk of epidemics.
At the beginning of the 19th century the church was permanently closed to worship and the local post office was built in its place. Today’s Piazza Marconi, where the complex stood, was once called Piazzale della Marina. A document in the Caetani Archive, dated 1632 and drawn up inside the church, records a meeting of the heads of family of the new inhabitants of San Felice Circeo in the presence of the Duke of Sermoneta Francesco Caetani, at which Saint Felix was declared «Advocate, defender and protector», strengthening the bond between the community and the saint.