Patron saint festival
Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel
📅 Every year, on 29 September
On 8 May and 29 September Valva celebrates Saint Michael the Archangel; the village also preserves Villa D'Ayala.
In the time of the Roman empire there was a flourishing town near here that already carried this name. When the barbarian invasions came its inhabitants left their houses and built new ones higher up the mountain, founding what is now called Valva Vecchia, of which the ruins remain. Later the village was rebuilt down in the valley, where it stands now; in Norman times it was called Balba and belonged to local lords. The place is a farming centre of the upper Sele valley, on the left side, the side of the Lucanian Apennine, at the foot of steep rocky slopes — about which the sources do not even agree, since they name neither the same mountains nor the same heights. From 1811 to 1860 it belonged to the circondario of Laviano, in the district of Campagna. The mother church is dedicated to Saint James the apostle, it has three naves and three baroque portals on the façade; and in the apse of the chapel of the Madonna degli Angeli there is a Renaissance fresco of the Virgin with the Child and two angels behind her.
At the edge of the village is villa d'Ayala: a park of about seventeen hectares, adorned with statues, with a castle inside it. It belonged to the d'Ayala-Valva family and today it is the property of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta; its gardens pass for some of the finest in Italy, and one ranking puts them seventh. And in that castle a child grew up. Giacinto Scelsi was born at Pitelli in 1905, the son of a naval officer and of Donna Giovanna d'Ayala Valva, who normally lived here; and here he was raised and taught by a private tutor, who taught him three things: Latin, chess and fencing. Then the family moved to Rome, where his musical gift was encouraged with private lessons; he studied in Vienna and, following the discipline of Arnold Schönberg, became the first follower of dodecaphony in Italy. From the nineteen twenties he travelled a great deal and made friends among European intellectuals, Jean Cocteau and Virginia Woolf among them; the music he is known for is microtonal. He died in Rome in 1988.
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Valva 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Valva
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Valva, but an easy day trip away.
Chiesa di Sant'Antonio di Padova 📍 San Benedetto del Tronto · 22 km The church of Sant'Antonio in San Benedetto del Tronto, with its mosaic of the sermon to the fish. Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie 📍 Teramo · 23 km Shrine of Teramo's patroness by Porta Madonna: gilded fifteenth-century statue, twelfth-century cloister. Palazzina Azzurra 📍 San Benedetto del Tronto · 23 km The Rationalist summer dance pavilion of San Benedetto del Tronto, now an exhibition space. Chiesa di Sant'Anna dei Pompetti 📍 Teramo · 23 km Remains of Teramo's ancient cathedral in piazza Sant'Anna: an early Christian three-nave church on a Roman insula. Torre dei Gualtieri 📍 San Benedetto del Tronto · 23 km The medieval keep of the Paese Alto of San Benedetto del Tronto, with a viewing terrace over the Riviera. Chiesa di Sant'Agostino 📍 Teramo · 23 km Augustinian church in Teramo from which the Good Friday Procession of the Desolata starts; closed since the 2009 quake.