Cocullo sits on a hill at the boundary between the Peligna valley and the Marsica, and its name is very old: Strabo calls it Koukolon, in Latin it was Cuculum, a frontier village between the Paeligni and the Marsi. The Romans took it during the Social War; then the Lombards rebuilt it higher up, around a watchtower that is now the bell tower of San Nicola and that still bears at its top the marks of the Avezzano earthquake of 1915. It has been a comune in its own right since 1806, when the French abolished feudal tenure.
But Cocullo is known for one thing only: the festival of the serpari, in the first days of May. The statue of Saint Dominic the abbot goes out in procession covered with live snakes, caught in the preceding weeks by the village snake-handlers and — this is less well known — carried back after the feast to exactly where they were taken. Behind it lies the Marsian cult of the goddess Angitia, who ruled snakes and fire, so much so that the Romans called the Marsi magicians and healers; Christianity laid Saint Dominic over the top, and on leaving he is said to have left the village two relics, one of his molars and the shoe of his mule. For toothache, on that day, people ring the bell rope with their teeth.
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📅 Every year, on the first Thursday of May
On the first Thursday of May Cocullo, a municipality of 265 inhabitants in the province of L'Aquila, celebrates its patron San Domenico abate.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Cocullo, but an easy day trip away.
