What to see nearby

CASTEL CAMPONESCHI

It was built around the 13th century. It is not clear whether it was founded by the Camponeschi, Lords of Aquila from the XIII-XV century, or was it only their property. After several changes of hands in the Spanish era, the castle was a fief of the Nardis family from 1634 to 1806. It was inhabited until 1963, when the last family moved to Prata d’Ansidonia. Currently the castle is owned by the Municipality of Prata D’Ansidonia. Since 2003 the mountain community “Campo Imperatore – Piana Navelli” undertook an important restoration operation, interrupted in 2009 due to the earthquake and is now closed to the public.

The plant consists of a rectangular wall with remains of six towers. The two medieval access doors are perfectly preserved. The west gate is also flanked by a large half-truncated tower, and a church dedicated to San Piel internal village consists of small one-room rural houses and two more complex houses.

 

SAN NICANDRO

Located at the western end of the Plateau of Navelli, overlooking the Conca Aquilana and the Subequana Valley, the town was built around the tenth century around the church already then dedicated to the martyr Nicandro from whom it took its name. Under the Norman domination (XII-XIII century) on the adjacent hill a fortified castle was erected, of which only a few remains remain today. In 1392 it was occupied by the Camponeschi family and in 1424 by Braccio da Montone. From 1529 it was a possession of various Spanish families, until about 1600 when it became the property of Baron Ottaviano Maldenti di Forli; in the seventeenth century it became a fief of the Baroni Cappa that still today own the majestic palace.

 

TUSSIO

Fraction of Prata d’Ansidonia, stands on the hill Croco, whose name derives from the Latin Crocus (“saffron”, which in the area is traditionally cultivated). The place was certainly inhabited already in the late Bronze Age and in Italic and Roman times, as evidenced by the numerous findings, including a pair of stone lions probably belonging to a monumental tomb, now located one at the town square and the other at the National Museum of L’Aquila. The current village developed from the 13th century, and was administered by the Camponeschi family. It still keeps perfectly legible the medieval urban plan perched, on top of which dominates the parish church with the raised bell tower on the tower of the ancient castle.

 

CASTLE OF SAN PIO DELLE CAMERE

The castle of San Pio delle Camere rises on the coast of the Gentile hill, under which the inhabited center has developed. The oldest information on the castle dates back to 1173, indicating it as a fief of the barons from Poppleto (the current Coppito), later becoming a fiefdom of the Caracciolo family. It seems that its function was exclusively a refuge for the population and not for residence. The structure of the castle is enclosed, with its construction that took place in two stages, initially with the construction of the tower, pentagonal plan and then that of the boundary walls. The current state of ruin is the result of the attack brought in 1424 by Braccio da Montone.

 

BOMINACO

Bominaco, a hamlet of Caporciano, a small medieval village, famous for its Benedictine churches. The abbey church of Santa Maria Assunta is an example of Abruzzi Romanesque architecture, with important stone decorations, identifiable in the capitals and in the liturgical furnishings. The oratory of San Pellegrino, perhaps founded by Charlemagne, rebuilt by Abbot Teodino in 1263, shows inside frescoes of the Abruzzese school of the thirteenth century, among the largest and most intact pictorial complexes of the time: they depict, in addition to the life of the titular saint, episodes of the monastic calendar and of sacred history. The Castle of Bominaco rises above the ecclesiastical complex. The structure dates back to the twelfth century, the current appearance derives from the destruction of the previous castle by Braccio da Montone, in 1424 and its reconstruction by the feudal lord of Bominaco Cipriano of Iacobuccio da Forfona, with permission of Pope Martin V.

 

ROCCA CALASCIO

Among the most evocative places of Abruzzo and of Italy as a whole, Rocca Calascio was probably built by Ruggero d’Altavilla after the Norman conquest of 1140 with a prevalent sighting function. In 1463, it was granted by King Ferdinand to the Piccolomini family who modified the fortification by equipping it with a wall in cobblestone and four cylindrical towers for military use, with a Ghibelline battlements. In 1703 it was devastated by a violent earthquake after which the highest area of ​​the village was abandoned and most of the population moved to the nearby town of Calascio. In the twentieth century even the last families left abandoned the village and the fortress remained uninhabited.