The name appears as Claravallis in a Latin document of 1483, the year Alfonso II of Aragon raised the village to a fief and entrusted it to count Goffredo de Borges. Claravallis became Claravalle and then Chiaravalle, and so it stayed until 1863, when a royal decree added the Centrale it still carries. By around 1400 the town was already known for its linen industry and trade: there is a district called Gurne, and tradition places there the tanks in which the flax was left to ret.
The earth here has twice decided where the town should stand. At midnight on 5 November 1659 an earthquake destroyed Chiaravalle and killed 67 people; the one of 1783 killed only two out of a little more than two thousand inhabitants, but the damage was assessed at seventy thousand ducats, and it was after that shock that the town moved to where it is now. Where it stood before is known only by tradition: further down the valley, around the knoll they call Castello and the one with the Capuchin convent. The title of city arrived in 2012.
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📅 Every year, on 3 February; the town also venerates Santa Maria della Pietra, protector of the city
Chiaravalle Centrale celebrates Saint Blaise on 3 February; the town also venerates Santa Maria della Pietra as protector of the city, in the shrine dedicated to her.
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 Chiaravalle Centrale, but an easy day trip away.
