WELCOME TO POPOLI TERME!
HISTORY
Popoli Terme lies on the Pescara river, 254 m above sea level, at the foot of Mount Morrone. Nothing certain is known about the first human settlements at the entrance to the Peligna basin, although various more or less well-founded hypotheses have been put forward by local historians. The "Tremonti pass" was certainly guarded as early as the Roman Republic, and we like to accept this as perhaps the most reliable hypothesis about the first settlements in our area. Over the centuries the area gained ever greater strategic importance, so much so that Popoli Terme came to be known as the "Key of the Three Abruzzi" (standing at the centre of the Pescara, Aterno and Sagittario valleys and of the Gizio gorges): whoever held the "Tremonti Gorges" could, at will or by force, block or open the only two roads (today's SS 5 and SS 17) linking the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea across the three Abruzzo provinces. The oldest "visible" testimony of the past is undoubtedly the great Tower on the north side of the Castle: it probably had little military value (unlike most castles), but from up there it watched over the whole Peligna basin and, around the year one thousand, the first houses of what would become today's historic centre began to rise at its feet, on the banks of the abundant rivers. The rivers, navigable all the way to the Adriatic, and the fortunate strategic position made the town an obligatory crossing point for goods of every kind and, above all, a reference point for trade: since the Middle Ages Popoli Terme held two weekly markets and four annual fairs, the most important source of income for the town. This constant flow of people, animals and goods made the town grow, so that at the Unification of Italy it already had 6,000 inhabitants (by comparison, Sulmona had only a few hundred more, and Pescara, then Castellamare, was a tiny fishing village). The town did not extend beyond its Three Gates: San Rocco (towards Chieti), Santa Maria D'Attoia (towards L'Aquila) and Sant'Antonio (towards Naples), located respectively near the church of the same name, near today's Eni square and near the church of San Domenico. Outside them lay the rich countryside of Popoli Terme and three mills that used the abundant water and supplied almost all the neighbouring villages. Between 1864 and 1871 the three Gates were demolished, together with the medieval Torrione dell'Aia, which was in direct sight of the Castle Tower; the short-sightedness of the administrators of the time is summed up in their reason: "to give the town more ventilation"! In Popoli Terme, the homeland of the wind! At the end of the nineteenth century Popoli Terme had a permanent town band, the only one in Abruzzo; it produced (and sold) electricity; it had an aqueduct bringing pure drinking water into the town; a spa of great therapeutic value; it was the seat of an electoral college covering 15 municipalities, of a Registry Office, of a District Court (with its own prison), and had a telegraph office and a railway station. All these services, together with easy communications and trade, gave Popoli Terme a leading social and economic position which, at the beginning of the twentieth century, allowed it to found a Higher Technical School, funded by the town and by private bequests.
SIGHTS
Church of San Francesco. Dating from 1334 and restored in the first half of the 1400s, it has a large stone-block
façade preceded by a tall flight of steps dominated by two Romanesque lions. The church combines architectural and sculptural features
from two different periods: the lower part dates from 1480, while the upper part was restored in 1688-89.
The Romanesque portal is topped by a Renaissance rose window whose spokes all differ from one another, framed by four lobes bearing the
symbols of the Evangelists, while the coats of arms of the Cantelmo and Carafa families are carved in the centre.
The upper Baroque section is lightened by a large rectangular central window.
The bell tower also belongs to different periods: the lower part dates from 1480 (the date can be read under the Cantelmo coat of arms),
the central part was added in 1688 and the top was completed in 1714. The interior was restored several times after the 1915 earthquake.
Of note are the fifteenth-century fresco of the Pietà and the altar frontal in Castelli ceramic tiles in the chapel of St Francis.
Civic Tower. Built in the eighteenth century with a clock of the same period, it has a balcony and a spire-shaped top
crowned by a bell tower.
Church of the Holy Trinity. Dating from the 1700s, it has a long flight of steps leading up to its all-stone façade.
The bell tower of 1648 rises on the left. Inside is an interesting altarpiece of 1557 depicting the Holy Trinity.
Church of San Lorenzo and San Biagio. It has a simple façade with three entrance portals dating from 1562.
The bell tower of the same period was completed at the top in 1737. Inside are Renaissance works such as the holy water font of 1554
and the monument to Bartolomeo Corfinio of 1590.
Palazzo Cantelmo. Built in the fifteenth century in the centre of the town, it is recognisable by its Renaissance
rusticated portal. Inside is a trapezoid courtyard with an open staircase.
Castle. It was built in 1015 by Bishop Tidolfo. In 1269 it passed to the Cantelmo dukes, who held the fief of Popoli
until the eighteenth century. It stands on a hill in the middle of a pine wood and can be reached by a stepped street starting from the
town's main square. Its plan is roughly triangular, with a perimeter wall, a square tower and a round keep. The whole structure is
interesting because it shows how a medieval fortification was used in the Renaissance.
Ducal (or Old) Tavern, built in the fourteenth century and considered one of the most interesting medieval civil
buildings in the region, with a splendid façade decorated with coats of arms and bas-reliefs. The courtyard, with Renaissance elements
from the fifteenth-century ducal palace, is remarkable. It was built by G. Cantelmo as a warehouse to collect and sell the tithes on
all farm produce owed to the feudal lord. It later became an inn and hotel, as Popoli was a stopping point for stagecoaches.
Next to it a new one was built, known as the University (or New) Tavern. The Old Tavern has two floors, with the shop itself on the
ground floor.
GOOD TO KNOW
Corradino D'Ascanio, the helicopter pioneer. He was born in Popoli on 1 February 1891. At 17 he built and personally tested his first glider, with not very brilliant results, it is said. He graduated in engineering from the Politecnico di Torino and immediately afterwards, in 1914, volunteered for the aviators' battalion, where he was in charge of testing aircraft engines. These early experiences, driven by enormous determination and an even greater passion for everything that flies, made Corradino D'Ascanio the Italian pioneer of the helicopter. As happens to all pioneers, however, the value of his engineering research was recognised very late. His time in the United States in 1918, where he had been sent by the Turin company Pomilio, thrilled him and gave him new drive for the work he loved. He worked again with the army on fighter engines and then devoted himself entirely to helicopters. He designed one, built it and tested it in Popoli. Something still was not right. In 1927, commissioned by the Air Ministry, D'Ascanio designed his second helicopter, this time with a FIAT engine. The project was finally approved in 1928 and two years later the prototype flew, piloted by test pilot Nello Marinelli, who thus became the first helicopter pilot of the Italian air force. The experiments, however, found few supporters and so, through someone's short-sightedness, the DAT 3 prototype ended up forgotten in a hangar. D'Ascanio was hired by Piaggio as a propeller specialist. He designed a new two-seat helicopter, the PD 2 (in 1939), but the war wiped out all his work. After the war D'Ascanio created, again for Piaggio, the Vespa. In 1948 he returned to the helicopter: the PD 3 flew in 1952, while D'Ascanio had meanwhile received from the World Congress in Philadelphia the recognition that Italy had denied him. In the 1950s he moved to Agusta, the first private company to build helicopters in Italy. He taught at the Scuola Normale in Pisa, where he died on 6 August 1981. Incredibly, the name of the brilliant and tenacious Corradino D'Ascanio remains linked to the Vespa rather than to his passion for flight.
From an article by Dr Giovanni D'Agostino on Concapeligna.it (translated from Italian)
