Fresagrandinaria

The village was born at the beginning of the ninth century, while Winigis of Spoleto and Grimoald of Benevento were disputing this land; in 812 the peace agreement between Franks and Lombards took from the Lombards the Abruzzo as far as the Trigno, and the people of the scattered farming settlements round about came together, building their little houses around the stronghold raised on the Morgione, which overlooks the valley: the sources call it a synoecism. The first time the name appears written is in a privilege of pope Leo IX of 9 November 1053, confirming to the abbot of Santa Maria di Tremiti the church of Santa Maria ad Fresa — and that church, altered many times, still exists: it is Santa Maria delle Grazie. In the same century the Benedictines founded here the monastery of Sant'Angelo in Cornacchiano, on the ruins of the church of San Martino sul Treste, which the Chronicon farfense names in 829, and which in its turn stood on the remains of a pagan temple dedicated to Cybele, to Venus and probably to Hercules.

In 1060 the Normans came, and gave the place in sub-fief to the barons Grandinato: they held it, together with Dogliola, Lentella, Furci, Palmoli and other castles, until the family died out about 1330; the first act naming them was drawn at Fresa on the first of May 1115. Then came the Di Sangro, and in 1447 the census counted sixty-five hearths and four hundred and fifteen people. In 1583 the fief was bought by Giulio Gesualdo, prince of Venosa, and passed in the following century to the Caracciolo, who lived in Naples and had power over only part of the territory: hence centuries of lawsuits with the «particulari», the small free owners. In 1687 Fresa obtained from Marino Caracciolo the renewal of the Capitolazioni, a statute that put in writing the rights and duties of the citizens; but with his successors those rules stayed on paper, and in 1787 the people rose: they took back the goods that had been seized, burned the treasurer's house, beat the bailiffs and fired shots, and the governor got away by night. From the feudal yoke the people of Fresa freed themselves in 1804, with a deed of accommodation that cost so much every year as to feed lawsuits for decades.