The town carries in its name the first name of a lord: Raimondo Caldora, who was baron here in 1414, and the «Messer» that goes with it is the title of respect by which people called him. It stands on a hill looking over the river Fino and is built of the local sandstone, which gives its streets their colour. Long before the baron the Vestini were here, and on Colle San Giorgio a path leads to the remains of an Italic temple of the third or second century before Christ, dug over at various times through the years and studied in a monograph; all the material recovered is today on show in the national archaeological museum of Abruzzo, at Chieti. The village keeps the place, the museum keeps the objects.
The mother church of San Donato Martire was built over a medieval church, on the top of the hill, and its facade — designed by the Neapolitan engineer Francesco Giordano — was begun in 1773 and finished by his pupils only in 1867: nearly a century, and the man who drew it never saw it done. The bell tower with its clock stands in the middle of the front, high up, like a small turret, and inside, in the singing gallery, there is an Italian baroque organ built in 1765 by the organ-maker Vitale De Luca. The patron is that same San Donato, whose body is venerated in the church: it is carried in solemn procession through the streets of the town once every five years, on the seventh of August.
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📅 Every year, on 7 August, with the procession of the saint's body every five years
Castiglione Messer Raimondo celebrates Saint Donatus the Martyr on 7 August. Every five years, on this date, the saint's body is carried in solemn procession through the town's streets.
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 Castiglione Messer Raimondo, but an easy day trip away.
