Pescocostanzo

The earthquake of 1456 devastated Abruzzo, and at Pescocostanzo it produced a consequence that lasts to this day: to rebuild, a large colony of Lombard craftsmen arrived, and those craftsmen never left. Between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries they taught the working of stone, marble, wrought iron and wood, and from that comes the disproportionate quantity of works of art this mountain village preserves; in the basilica of Santa Maria del Colle there is also an altarpiece by Tanzio da Varallo, a Lombard painter, with the Madonna of the quenched fire, of 1614. But the deepest mark is not of stone: in that same basilica baptisms are still celebrated with the Ambrosian rite, that is with the liturgy of Milan, more than six hundred kilometres from Milan.

The other date the people here do not forget is 1774: in that year the community bought itself out of feudal rule, taking the title of Universitas Sui Domina, «community mistress of itself», which has been the motto on the communal arms ever since. This was no ordinary village: from the eleventh century it appears among the possessions of Montecassino and is depicted on the bronze doors that abbot Desiderius had made in 1065; in 1108 the abbot handed the castle of Pesco Costanzo to count Attone in exchange for the castle of Cantalupo, that is, he swapped it for another. After the buy-out the town filled with private libraries and with legal, philosophical and mathematical study: from here comes Ottavio Colecchi, philosopher and mathematician, held to be the first and most authoritative Italian interpreter of Kant's philosophy. The village stands at 1395 metres and is the fourth highest comune in the Apennines.