Patron saint festival In 51 days
Feast of Saint Barbara
📅 Every year, on 4 December
On 4 December Barbara celebrates its patron Saint Barbara; the town shares its name with the saint.
The name comes from the Lombards: towards the end of the sixth century an outpost of theirs settled here, on the border with Byzantine Senigallia, and to the neighbours they were the barbarians, that is the foreigners. In 1257 the village made itself a commune with the backing of Jesi, but it stayed tied to the abbey of Santa Maria di Sitria, and from that tie it did not break free until Italian unity.
From 1453 the abbey was held in commendam by cardinals of the great Roman families — Cesi, Barberini, Albani — and Barbara became its office: in the choir of the abbey church hang the portraits of the eighteen commendatory abbots, and the town hall sits in the palace done up in 1716 for cardinal Annibale Albani. The church of Santa Barbara instead began as a private chapel: it was made by a man who had come through the siege of 1461.
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Barbara 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Barbara
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Barbara, but an easy day trip away.
Castello Sanfelice 📍 Bagnoli del Trigno · 4.1 km At 783 metres above Bagnoli, the fortress that guarded the Castel di Sangro-Lucera drove road. chiesa di San Silvestro 📍 Bagnoli del Trigno · 4.5 km A church with no façade, wedged between two rocks, and a crucifix with jointed arms. Castello d'Evoli 📍 Castropignano · 9.4 km Legend gives it 365 rooms: the d'Evoli stronghold above the Biferno valley Santuario italico di Pietrabbondante 📍 Pietrabbondante · 11 km The theatre and temples where the Pentri Samnites gathered their senate, above the Trigno. castello D'Alessandro 📍 Pescolanciano · 11 km A drawbridge finished in 1691, relics in the ducal chapel, German officers in 1943. torre di Oratino 📍 Oratino · 12 km A doorway high above the ground and a ladder to haul up: the Norman tower of Oratino.