Borgo di Pacentro

Pacentro is a beautiful village, approximately halfway around the village it wanders around a main street, while going towards the beautiful castle, the village begins to be a tangle of alleys where it is nice to get lost and find all the glimpses. The only flaw is that there are few exercises ... too few ... unfortunately

Pacentro is an Italian town of 1 118 inhabitants [2] in the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo. It is part of the Peligna mountain community, of the Majella national park and of the club of the most beautiful villages in Italy. Caldora castle tower Pacentro is mentioned for the first time in the eighth century, when it was donated to the monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno by the Spoleto dukes. With the invasion of the nearby Peligna Valley by the raids of the Saracens and Normans, numerous houses and churches were built in the area surrounding the castle (10th-11th century) and there was an improvement in the economy of the village. In about 1170, the Catalog of the Barons of the Kingdom of Naples attests that Pacentro is inhabited by 48 families. During the Caldorish period (circa 1270 - 1464), characterized by the re-awakening of the struggle between the Angevins and the Aragonese for the government of the Kingdom of Naples, the town became one of the protagonists of the conflict, as the nearby Sulmona supported the Aragonese. With Giacomo Caldora the town experienced a period of peace, which ended with the victory of the Aragonese, due to the subtraction of fiefs from Antonio Caldora. From 1483 to 1612 the town was under the Orsini family, while in the period between 1613 and 1624 it was ruled by the captain Antonio Domenico De Sanctis. In 1626 the fiefdom, divided by creditors, fell into the hands of the Colonna. Subsequently, in 1664, the castle was sold by the Regia Camera della Sommaria to Maffeo Barberini, who gave it to the Marquises Recupito di Raiano from whom it was managed until the subversion of feudalism. After the unification of Italy, the whole area was marked by the phenomenon of banditry. During the twentieth century various phases of emigration gradually depopulated the country. In the 70s the revaluation of the town began, in the 90s the castle, at risk of collapse, was restored with concrete buttresses and made open to visitors. Starting from 2000 the village became the object of frequent tourist visits, due to the beauty of the ancient center and the castle