Trasacco has 6,144 inhabitants on the southern side of what used to be Lake Fucino. The name is a piece of Roman engineering: it comes from Transaquas, "beyond the waters", because with respect to Marruvium, the Roman town on the other side, the village lay across the lake. It took the name at the very time of the first drainage, the one the emperor Claudius had carried out between 41 and 52 with the tunnels that still bear his name. The basilica of Santi Cesidio e Rufino, tradition says, stands on the remains of the imperial palace Claudius had built for himself to follow the works.
The lake came back, and was drained again and for good between 1855 and 1876 by Alessandro Torlonia, who opened about sixteen thousand hectares to the plough: the plain the village looks over today is the bottom of a lake. Then there is an unsettling detail concerning 1915. A few days before the earthquake that killed about a tenth of Trasacco's population, some farmers reported strange things in the fields at the edge of the village: gas coming out of the ground, and the water in the wells suddenly turning cloudy.
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📅 Every year, on 31 August; 16 January brings the Mascaritte for Saint Anthony
Trasacco celebrates Saint Cesidius on 31 August, in the basilica dedicated to him. On 16 January, the feast of Saint Anthony is held, with the theatrical performance «Mascaritte» along the streets of the historic centre.
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 Trasacco, but an easy day trip away.
