Why a series dedicated to the castles and fortresses that dot the territories between Lazio and Abruzzo? The most immediate answer is that many of these fascinating architectures are clearly visible from the A24 and A25 highways, accompanying them along the entire route. But the deeper reason is another: fortifications and manors are among the most powerful identity symbols of these lands, places that for centuries have been border, frontier, hinge. Swabians and Angevins, Aragonese and feudal conspirators faced each other here; armies from beyond the Alps, Saracen marauders and Ottoman pirates entered here, and great captains of fortune clashed; great sheep-tracks, flocks, merchants and cultures passed through here, making these territories a fruitful bridge between the latifundous Mezzogiorno and the prosperous communal economies of Central Italy. Castles have defended, guarded, but also welcomed: they have been military garrisons, centers of economic exchange, small Renaissance courts, places of delight, and today, in many cases, they remain living cultural spaces, enlivened by events, museums, film productions. With this series, in the year of L’Aquila as the Italian Capital of Culture, we want to take you on a journey that is both historical and touristic, into the beauty and identity of an area that we are privileged to cross and connect every day. A journey that will also accompany you on the highways, with dedicated graphics in some Service Areas.
But let’s start with a very significant date, March 20…
The Fortress of Civitella del Tronto, built by order of Charles of Anjou on March 25, 1269, and completely renovated from the mid-sixteenth century at the behest of Philip II of Spain, is emblematic: the protagonist of famous sieges-from the one in 1557 against the French troops of the Duke of Guise to the Napoleonic sieges of 1799 and 1806-it has spanned centuries of conflict between Italy’s most coveted kingdom and the great European dynasties.
Still in the twentieth century, during World War II, Civitella del Tronto was the scene of a luminous page of civil solidarity in the darkest moment of recent history, with the assistance given by the population to the Jews interned in the local concentration camp, an event that earned the municipality the Bronze Medal for Civil Merit. However, it is one date that makes Civitella del Tronto a place-symbol of national history: March 20, 1861.
March 20, 1861: the last surrender, three days after the rest of Italy
On that morning 165 years ago, after about two hundred days of siege, at 11 a.m. Major Giovanni Raffaele Tiscar unfurled the white flag over the Fortress, sanctioning the surrender of the last garrison of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, three days after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in Turin on March 17 and after the fall of Gaeta on February 13 of the same year. Civitella del Tronto was the last Bourbon stronghold to surrender, the last strip of a kingdom now defeated but not yet resigned. A resistance that official History has long simplified, but which continues to interrogate and divide memories. Today this village, included in the circuit of Italy’s Most Beautiful Villages, guards this complex legacy without turning it into a relic: Bourbon monarchy, Savoy monarchy and Republic are still intertwined in stories, celebrations and even cuisine, where dishes such as Filetto alla Borbonica or Spezzatino alla Franceschiello return, through flavors, a fragment of shared history.
A fortress to experience: numbers, records and useful information for visiting
To visit Civitella del Tronto today is to enter one of the most impressive works of military engineering in Europe. The fortress is more than 500 meters long, with an area of about 25,000 square meters, and is considered the largest Spanish fortress in Italy. Perched about 600 meters above sea level, it dominates the Vibrata Valley and offers a view that sweeps from the Laga Mountains and Gran Sasso to the Adriatic Sea. The tour route passes through covered walkways, plazas of arms, cisterns, patrol paths and houses the Museum of Weapons and Ancient Maps. The Fortress can be visited year-round with seasonal hours (roughly 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in winter months, until 8 p.m. in summer, with last entry 30 minutes before closing). The picturesque village of Civitella del Tronto, at the foot of the fortress, is quaint and full of curiosities. Among its alleys one can come across the Ruetta, what is considered the narrowest alley in Italy. A medieval passageway that in some places is no more than 40 centimeters wide.
Reaching this destination is also easy from the highway: from the A24 Rome-Teramo fre eway you can exit at the Teramo Ovest tollbooth, continuing on the Val Vibrata along the ordinary roadway to Civitella del Tronto, in an itinerary that in just a few kilometers leads from modern infrastructure to a place where history becomes landscape. An invitation to slow down, get off the highway and discover up close a heritage that continues to tell the story of who we are.
