Amatrice lies at the centre of a basin in the upper Tronto valley, almost at the point where Lazio, Abruzzo, Marche and Umbria meet, on a plateau running at around a thousand metres; the municipal territory is vast, more than one hundred and seventy square kilometres, with dozens of hamlets scattered over it. The highest summit in Lazio is here: Monte Gorzano, the greatest peak of the Monti della Laga, on the ridge that closes the basin to the east. Those mountains are made differently from the other massifs of the central Apennines, because in place of limestone they have sandstones and clay layers, less permeable: rainwater does not sink, it stays at the surface and runs, so the valleys cutting the western slope are full of waterfalls, at their largest in spring when the snow melts and, in the hardest winters, turned into sheets of ice. The town's name appears for the first time as Matrice in the Regesto of Farfa, in 1012, and from here comes the name of the amatriciana too, which later spread to Rome and became one of the best-known dishes of Italian cooking.
In the Middle Ages the town entered the Kingdom of Naples, rebelled when the Angevins came and was subdued by Charles the First of Anjou, keeping nevertheless a certain autonomy as a universitas; in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it quarrelled continually with Norcia, Arquata and L'Aquila. In 1529 it was stormed by the troops of Philibert of Chalon, a general of Charles the Fifth, who gave it to his own general Alessandro Vitelli; later it passed to the Orsini and to the Medici of Florence, who held it until the eighteenth century. Historically part of Abruzzo Ultra and then of the province of L'Aquila, it was aggregated to the new province of Rieti in 1927. This is a land of high seismicity, and it is not the first time it has come down: an earthquake severely damaged it as early as 1639. On 24 August 2016 Amatrice was one of the places worst struck by the central Italy earthquake: the historic centre was almost entirely destroyed, many hamlets suffered gravest damage, and at least two hundred and ninety-five people died.
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📅 Every year, on the Sunday after Ascension
Amatrice celebrates Santa Maria di Filetta on the Sunday after Ascension, when a procession unites all the people of the Amatrice area for Mass and the traditional picnic on the meadows.
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.
