Palazzo Aragona stands near Vasto's public gardens. It was built in 1522 by Dario d'Antonello of Vasto, who dedicated it to Maria d'Aragona, Marchioness of Vasto and wife of Alfonso d'Avalos. According to a story handed down, the money came from a large sum left in safekeeping by a French soldier in Lautrec's following, who never came back for it. The complex was made up of several blocks arranged around three courtyards, with ice houses, later pulled down to build the stadium, and a church, the chapel of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli. Later the Marquis Cesare Michelangelo d'Avalos turned it into a princely residence and enriched it with works of art; on his death the palace fell into neglect.
What to see
At the start of the nineteenth century the complex had twenty-one rooms on the ground floor and fourteen on the upper floors, with a tower and the little church. In 1820 it was bought by Giuseppantonio Rulli; at the end of the century it came to Ortensia d'Avalos, wife of Giovanni Quarto di Belgioioso, who had it restored. In 1922 it was sold to Umberto Mariani and his wife Giulia Zaccagnini, emigrants returning from the United States, who altered it by adding new blocks.
The spaces now used as exhibition rooms and a cultural centre are those that in the fifties housed the tobacco-processing workshops. They are called the «Scuderie di Palazzo Aragona», the stables, in homage to the Duke of Belgioioso and his passion for horses. An exhibition here recalls the ceremony of the Golden Fleece of 1723.
Visiting
Exhibitions and events at the Scuderie change over time: programme and opening times should be checked with Vasto town council.
Our editors' tip
Two curiosities. From 1892 to 1898 the palace housed Vasto's weather observatory. And in 1897 the administrator of the complex, Avveduto Bartoli Avveduti, had a daughter, Maria Antonietta, who under the stage name Elena Sangro became a star of silent cinema.
