Vasto

 

Vasto or il Vasto (Lù Uàštë in Abruzzo dialect) is an Italian town of 41 463 inhabitants in the province of Chieti in Abruzzo. It originates in the 12th century BC. in which the first Greek, Illyrian and Frentan populations settled in what would later become in 91 BC. the Roman Municipality of Histonium, an important fishing village and port of the Adriatic until its destruction by the Lombards in the Middle Ages.

Rebuilt as a stronghold during the Caldora Lordship, it acquired a certain importance during the period of Aragonese domination, becoming the center of the possessions of the D'Avalos family. With the passage to the Kingdom of Naples under Austrian sovereignty following the War of the Spanish Succession, the town was elevated to the rank of City in 1710 by concession of Charles III to Cesare Michelangelo d'Avalos. At the end of the eighteenth century the city saw the proclamation of the Vastese Republic parallel to the birth of the Neapolitan Republic. In the nineteenth century it experienced a period of political, socio-economic and cultural growth, giving birth to several prominent personalities of the artistic and literary world, being called for this reason "Athens of the Abruzzi".

It is currently the 2nd municipality in the province by population, leading municipality of the Costa dei Trabocchi and of the Vastese area.

 

Origins of the name

The ancient Greek name was Ἱστόνιον, (Histónion) to indicate the promontory above the sea where the city is located. It was then romanized in Histōnium when it became a Roman municipality.

The current name of "Vasto" derives from the Lombard term "gasto" or "fault" (gastaldato), subdivision of the territory during the Lombard domination (which began in the last quarter of the sixth century). The medieval city in fact arose with the Guasto d'Aimone di Dordona, who founded two (damaged) cities, namely "Guasto d'Aymone" and "Guasto Gisone", united in a single nucleus in the fourteenth century.

Based on the local dialect which excludes "b" and "g", reducing the pronunciation with the substitute "v", the name has become what we know.

The name Vasto is masculine and historically takes an article (Il Vasto), like few other names of cities in the world such as Cairo and Piraeus.

Although the use of the article has become infrequent, it is correct, it remains mandatory in historical expressions and justifies the form "Città del Vasto".

 

Physical geography

Territory

The municipality of Vasto is bordered to the north by the Sinello river (border with Casalbordino), to the south by the Buonanotte stream (natural border with San Salvo), to the west by the municipalities of Cupello, Pollutri and Monteodorisio and to the east by the Adriatic Sea.

With an area of ​​71.35 km² it is the third municipality by territorial extension of the province (27th at the regional level).

The city center, the oldest part of the municipality, stands on a promontory at 144 m s.l.m. and less than 1 km away from the sea as the crow flies. This feature allows the city to enjoy a viewpoint over most of the 20 km of coastline (of which 7 are made up of a beach and 13 of a cliff), which includes the Gulf of Vasto, the only coastal inlet in the Adriatic Sea between the Gulf of Ancona to the north and Manfredonia to the south.

 

Climate

Vasto Center
On the basis of the thirty-year average of 1961-1990, the average temperature of the coldest month, January, is 7.1 ° C; that of the hottest month, August, is 24.9 ° C.

Vasto Punta Penna
On the basis of the thirty-year average of reference 1961-1990, the average temperature of the coldest month, January, is equal to 7.7 ° C; that of the hottest month, August, is 24.6 ° C.

 

History

Antiquity

Legend has it that the city was founded by the Greek hero Diomede during his wanderings in Italy, parallel to the other Frentane cities of the Costa dei Trabocchi around 1179 BC.

The first official news, however, comes from the geographer Strabo, from Pliny the Elder and from Tito Livio. Other historical reconstructions on the origins of the city come from Muzio Febonio, who speaks of Marsican colonies at the port of Punta d'Erce, and later from Luigi Marchesani, who wrote the monumental history of the city (1838).

Vasto was born not really as a city, but as a set of small villages on the Adriatic coast, as evidenced by the findings of Punta Aderci, Buca and Punta Penna. These villages were inhabited until the sixteenth century, and subsequently due to natural upheavals (landslides and raids) fell into destruction, while with the arrival of the Osco-Umbrian Italics, from about the seventh century the real citadel of Histonion was created (which however it did not have a real plant, and was described, at the Augustan age, as a "den of pirates"), then Romanized in Histonium after the conquest of 88 BC, since the city also participated in the Italic league during the war social against Rome.

During the Roman rule, Histonium was the second main port of the Frentana population, after Ortona: there are testimonies of consuls and important figures who followed Augustus in the conquest campaigns, and the figure of the poet decorated with laurel is still remembered today Lucio Valerio Pudente, whose work has been lost.

The findings already discovered in the mid-nineteenth century, described by the Marchesani, testify to the ancient urban layout of Histonium, above which today stands the district of Guasto d'Aimone (from the name of the Frankish feudal lord, who conquered and rebuilt it in the IX century); this system was articulated in orthogonal axes, now occupied by the current streets of Corso Dante, Corso Plebiscito, via Laccetti, via San Francesco, via Anelli, via Barbarotta, Corso Palizzi, via San Pietro, numerous Roman warehouses have been found ad opus reticulatum above where the current houses stand, to the north instead, along the viale Incoronata, was the necropolis, and the Murello aqueduct, which conveyed the waters from the north to Piazza Rossetti (where the amphitheater was located) and to the via Adriatica ( formerly strada delle Lame, where the Roman baths are located near the church of Sant'Antonio), while the second "delle Luci", led the waters from the south, starting from the district of Sant'Antonio abate, up to Largo Santa Chiara, where there are underground cisterns.

 

Middle Ages

Histonium, like the other centers of Abruzzo, included by Augustus in the Regio IV del Sannio, from the fifth century AD. it was sacked several times by the Barbarians, and finally occupied by the Franks of Aimone di Dodona, who destroyed it in the early years of 800 AD, at the time of the destruction of Chieti by Pepin the Short. The Roman city was rebuilt on top of the ancient ruins, while the new Guasto Gisone district was built on a hilly spur further south, behind the amphitheater. The toponym "Guasto" appeared in documents around the 6th-7th century, when the Lombards created a gastaldato in the city, that is, a proto-province for city and territorial administration.
In addition to the Guasto Gisone (today the district of Santa Maria Maggiore), the first military fortress was built on the plain hinge between the two cities, which in the 15th century will become the well-known Caldoresco castle.

The two cities continued to be administered by two mayors until 1385, when during the reign of the Durazzo in Naples, the two "Guasti" became a single university. In 1269 Charles I of Anjou gave Vasto to his cadet Tommaso Fasanella; during the government of his son Charles II, we have the first news of the Palazzo d'Avalos, built along via Corsea, which divided the two historic districts of Aimone and Gisone. From the Angevin period to the Caldoresco period, Vasto remained in the royal state property, being exempted from paying taxes; in 1366 Vasto entered with the fiefdoms in the power of Maria d'Angiò.

In 1427 Vasto entered the vast domains of Captain Jacopo Caldora, who had just emerged victorious from the war in L'Aquila against Braccio da Montone (1424), the last act of a series of wars of succession of the Neapolitan crown during the reign of Joan II of Anjou against the pretender Alfonso V of Aragon. Caldora made Vasto his special residence, completely redesigning the fortified castle, which today bears his name. The fief then passed to his son Antonio, who however lost it together with all the other Abruzzo possessions in 1442, following the defeat suffered in the battle of Sessano. For a short period (until 1444) the city of Vasto therefore returned to the royal domain.

 

From the modern era to the revolution of 1799

If Vasto during the Middle Ages was a valid military garrison of the Kingdom of Naples, it became even more so with the advent of the House of Aragon, which had another castle built near the plain of San Michele. At the end of the 15th century, the city was given over to the Spanish D'Avalos family. Innico d'Avalos was invested with the title of Marquis del Vasto by Frederick I of Naples in August 1497. The city of Abruzzo had previously been granted to the Guevara family in the person of Innico de Guevara in 1444, falling back into the royal domain in 1462 , on the death of Innico de Guevara. Meanwhile Antonio Caldora, siding with John II of Anjou in the war for the control of the kingdom of Naples against Ferrante I of Aragon, reoccupied Vasto in 1464. After a three-month siege, some members of the Vasto patriciate plotted with the Aragonese to hand over to they the Caldora and open the gates of the city. The action was successful and Ferrante rewarded the action with the confirmation of Alfonso's privileges, in particular the status of universitas in the royal state property. However, Vasto was again enfeoffed to a Guevara, or Innico's eldest son, Pietro in 1471. However, it returned again in 1486 to the royal state property when Pietro had been declared forfeited from his titles as a rebel, having participated in the conspiracy of the barons. Under Ferdinand II of Naples it had been given in fief in 1496 to the elder brother of Innico II d'Avalos, Rodrigo, who had however died before being able to take possession of it. The University of Vasto, however, boasted the perpetual state property and opposed the new lord. Only the direct intervention of the king two years later, who granted an indult and some favorable chapters, finally unblocked the situation.

 

The d'Avalos remained feudal lords of Vasto until the early 1800s, or until the promulgation of the subversive laws of feudality in 1806 by the kingdom of Naples, ruled at the time by Giuseppe Bonaparte. The title of Marquis del Vasto was granted in 1497 to Innico II, son of Innico I d'Avalos, count of Monteodorisio, and of Antonella d'Aquino. It later passed to the son of Innico II, the famous soldier Alfonso III d'Avalos. Alfonso was followed by his son, Francesco Ferdinando d'Avalos (who would have held the posts of governor in the Duchy of Milan and Viceroy of Sicily) and his nephew Alfonso Felice d'Avalos, a famous leader. With the death of these without male heirs, the title of Marquis del Vasto passed to a collateral branch of the family, headed by Innico III d'Avalos, who acquired it following his marriage to Isabella d'Avalos d'Aquino d ' Aragona, eldest daughter of Alfonso Felice. This branch of the family ruled the marquisate of Vasto until the death of the most famous of its exponents, Cesare Michelangelo d'Avalos, in 1729. With the death of Cesare Michelangelo the marquisate of Vasto passed to the Apulian branch of the d'Avalos, who it will die out with Alfonso d'Avalos (known mainly for his bequest to the Capodimonte museum in Naples known as the d'Avalos Collection).

During the period of the lordship of the d'Avalos, the seat of power was the D'Avalos palace, located next to the church of Sant'Agostino (today the Cathedral). A vast program of urban, cultural, political and economic improvement was implemented by the d'Avalos, in particular from Innico III, the first exponent of the family to reside permanently in the Abruzzo town, which saw its fruits especially during the reconstruction of the city, due to the severe assault of the Turks in the summer of 1566. Vasto was set on fire, the main monuments severely damaged, such as the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, San Pietro, Sant'Agostino, the Palazzo d'Avalos itself, except of the Caldoresco castle.

Among the most important works completed by the d'Avalos are the establishment of the Confraternita del Carmine dei Padri Lucchesi as a religious institute of boarding school for young people, based in the current church of Santa Maria del Carmine (built in 1638 with funding by Don Diego I d'Avalos) with an adjoining collegiate building (now the second bishopric of the diocese), the construction of the church of the Paolotti or Addolorata Fathers, the improvement of the walls of the Lame.

The arts also flourished, such as music and poetry, the most prominent personage born in Vasto was the composer of sacred music "Lupacchino" del Vasto.

The d'Avalos also worked to bring to the city some relics of great value, such as the "Holy Thorn" of the crown that encircled Christ's head, kept in Santa Maria Maggiore, donated by Philip II of Spain to Don Francesco Ferrante d ' Avalos, as he represented him in the twenty-year session of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), and the body of San Teodoro, who was the first patron of Vasto, before being replaced by the Archangel Michael in 1837.

A further strong impulse aimed at embellishing and conferring prestige on Vasto came with Cesare Michelangelo d'Avalos, who tried, returning from his Viennese exile in 1713, to transform the Abruzzo town, center of his domains, into a small but sumptuous court.

Going further, in 1799 the city was occupied by the French troops of General Louis Lemoine. Following this upheaval, the faction of the so-called "municipalists" (consisting mostly of elements of the local notabilato of liberal and pro-French orientation) came to power and the tree of liberty was planted in the square, followed on January 6 by the proclamation Vastese republic. The short period of this new administrative system inspired by French liberal principles was characterized by episodes that were anything but positive, with a provisional government always on the risk of being dissolved and in enormous economic difficulties due to French requisitions, episodes of anarchy and violence popular, and crimes and thefts against local notables.

Soon, on May 19, the Sanfedist troops of General Giuseppe Pronio, favored in Abruzzo by King Ferdinand IV himself, defeated the French forces, restoring the ancient government and persecuting the liberals, subjecting them to arbitrary exactions and violence.

 

From the nineteenth to the twentieth century

In the early nineteenth century, the figure of the poet Gabriele Rossetti, one of the first "Dante" of literary criticism, flourished in Vasto; he, struck by the events of the Vastese republic, was educated in classical studies, and very soon, during the events that involved the whole country, that is the uprisings of 1820-21, Rossetti also participated in raising the people with his poems, which cost him exile in London. In this period Carbonari movements arose in Vasto, which were dissolved and persecuted by the Bourbon police. In 1819 the "Real Teatro Borbonico San Ferdinando" (today Rossetti Theater) was inaugurated in the presence of the sovereign of Naples; it was obtained from what remained of the fourteenth-century monastery of Santo Spirito dei Celestini. The city of Vasto was also involved in the revolutionary uprisings of 1848, and finally in 1860 it was one of the first in Abruzzo to establish a popular plebiscite for the annexation of the city to the new Kingdom of Italy.

New breath to local art was given by local painters Gabriele Smargiassi and the Palizzi brothers: Filippo Palizzi (1818-1899), Giuseppe Palizzi (1812-1888) and Francesco Paolo Palizzi (1825-1871), who personally interpreted the style of pictorial realism, with natural representations, peasant, mythological and historical scenes, of which the major work is After the Deluge of Philip (1863), painted in honor of the proclamation of the Kingdom, dedicated to King Vittorio Emanuele II.

The city began to benefit from the fruits of the annexation, such as the creation of a railway network for transport, the modernization of the roads, improvements to the port of Punta Penna, and the construction of the Marina village below. There were also improvements during the early twentieth century, especially during the era of fascism. Piazza Rossetti, for example, was completely rebuilt, with a commemorative monument to the Vasto poet, nicknamed the "Tirteo d'Italia", and the construction of a new city street, namely Corso Italia.
From 1938 to 1944 the city, following precise fascist schemes of restoring the ancient Roman toponyms, changed its name to "Istonio".

 

From World War II to today

The events of the Second World War interested Vasto with the establishment of a prison camp for Jews and political dissidents at the Marina, in the Villino Marchesani, who would then be transferred to the relative Abruzzo camps of the Rebeggiani Barracks in Chieti, or at Fonte d'Amore. in Sulmona. The real war events continued in the Vasto area from 22 to 28 October, when the British troops of Bernard Law Montgomery collided with the German panzers and mortars scattered in the Trigno valley, which divides Abruzzo from Molise di Termoli and Montenero di Saddlebag. Meanwhile, the Germans had occupied the city from 8 September, and in their retreat, they destroyed some houses along Corso Garibaldi, and shelled the Punta Penna lighthouse, so that it was not used for military purposes by the allies. In November Montgomery was able to make his triumphal entry into the newly liberated Vasto, placing his headquarters in Villa Marchesani, and will return to the city on the 30th of the month for a concert at the Rossetti theater.

In the 60s the real economic boom began for Vasto, centered on industrialization and seaside tourism, even if the parenthesis of the serious landslide of 22 February 1956, which affected the historic center, in the part of the wall of the Lame, where the church of San Pietro and the Palazzo Marchesani or della Posta were located. Due to numerous rains, and the antiquated water drainage system, the water eroded the tuffaceous soil, engulfing a large portion of the historic district, and damaging the apse of the church of San Pietro (dating back to the 11th century), resulting in hence the inevitable demolition, leaving only the precious Gothic portal standing.

As mentioned, the city developed through new residential districts to the north, in the area of ​​the Incoronata convent, to the south in the Sant'Antonio district, to the north-east (the San Giovanni Bosco district), to the west (the San Giovanni district). Paolo), and especially in the Navy, a development that consecrated Vasto among the main productive and competitive cities in the province of Chieti, and then in the Abruzzo region itself.

 

Monuments and places of interest

The historic center of Vasto is made up of the ancient Roman district of Histonium, or "Guasto d'Aymone" (or "City of Aymone di Dordona", first count of the city wanted by Pipino the Short) and "Guasto Gisone", medieval part Norman of the center, which were then reunited into a single city in 1385.

Guasto d'Aymone
The district of "Guasto d'Aymone" is delimited by the area of ​​the Muro delle Lame, Corso de Parma, the portion of Corso Garibaldi with the bulk of the Caldoresco Castle, Corso Plebiscito, via Crispi, via Roma and again the reunion with via Adriatica, near the church of Sant'Antonio di Padova.

Scholars have found that this district almost completely reflects the ancient cardo and decumanus of the Roman city, together with the axes of the various internal streets.

The main cardo is Corso Palizzi, while the decumanus Corso Dante, and the main monuments are the church of San Pietro (of which today the facade remains after the 1956 landslide), the church of Sant'Antonio, originally complex of San Francesco d '' Assisi, where the baths of Vasto were found, the church of the Annunziata, the church of the Carmine, the Palazzo Genova Rulli, the Porta Nuova (the only one left in the district), the Rossetti Theater (built above the Monastery of Santo Spirito ), the Palazzo d'Avalos and the Cathedral of San Giuseppe, which is located together with the Marchesale Palace at the confluence of the two historic districts, with Piazza del Popolo watershed.

Guasto Gisone
The district of "Guasto Gisone", founded in the 9th century, includes the walls that from Piazza Rossetti, through Torre di Bassano (15th century), surround the entire circular perimeter area, up to the promenade of Loggia Amblingh.

The gateway, after the demolition of Porta Castello, is Porta Catena: the neighborhood is typically medieval, made up of narrow streets, houses leaning against each other, which surround the massive bulk of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Among the most famous buildings are the House of Giuseppe Amblingh, the wall of the Neapolitan Garden of Palazzo d'Avalos and the birthplace of Gabriele Rossetti.

 

Religious architectures

There are many religious structures, mostly present in the historic center. The oldest and most important in the city are:

the Cathedral of Vasto, co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Chieti-Vasto dedicated to San Giuseppe, dating back to the 13th century as the church of Sant'Agostino with the monastery, but extensively rebuilt in the 17th-19th century, with the interior in neo-Gothic style. It became a collegiate church in 1808 by decree of Giuseppe Bonaparte, after its name it was dedicated to Saint Joseph husband of Mary, and then cathedral only in 1808-1853, since first the two collegiate of Vasto, were those of San Pietro and Santa Maria Maggiore, and there was an administrative reorganization. The fourteenth-century facade is still original, the bell tower is baroque, the interior with a single nave was rebuilt in the early twentieth century.

the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, with its iconic turreted bell tower, is one of the largest and most monumental churches in Vasto, a parish in the historic Guasto Gisone district, hosting the tombs of Venceslqo Mayo (municipalist in 1799), Innico III d'Avalos marquis , the relic of the Thorn of the sacred Crown of Christ, and in the crypt the body of San Cesario, donated in 1695 by Don Cesare Michelangelo d'Avalos
the Church of Maria Santissima del Carmine: commissioned by Don Diego d'Avalos in the seventeenth century, above the church of San Nicola degli Schiavoni, as the seat of the Lucchesi Fathers, who needed a church with an adjoining monastery and college for youth education. It has a longitudinal Greek cross layout and is in Baroque style. The adjacent former monastery is the secondary seat of the archdiocese.
the Church of San Michele Arcangelo, dedicated to the patron saint of Vasto, rises to the south, on the promontory beyond the municipal villa, has a characteristic Greek cross plan, with an octagonal exterior. It dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, after the miracle of San Michele against the cholera epidemic of 1837, has a neoclassical appearance with a monumental high altar in polychrome marble.
Former church of San Pietro: the church has ancient origins (9th century) built over the temple of Cerere, and was an important collegiate church until 1808 together with that of Santa Maria Maggiore. Before its destruction it had a neoclassical interior with a single nave with side chapels. Due to the severe landslide in the historic center of 1956, the church, which had the apse facing the promontory "delle Lame", was demolished for safety, except for the beautiful facade with the 13th century Gothic portal, with the Madonna in the lunette with the Child and the scene of the Deposition. The bell tower was a tower with a spire. His parish was transferred to the nearby church of Sant'Antonio di Padova together with the sacred and monumental furnishings.
Church of Sant'Antonio di Padova: located on the Via Adriatica, dates back to the 13th century, one of the first Franciscan monasteries in Abruzzo. The convent suppressed at the beginning of the nineteenth century was demolished in the mid-twentieth century to bring to light the excavation of the Roman baths of Histonium. The church has a simple unfinished facade, Gothic portal, and a richly decorated Baroque interior with furnishings from the former church of San Pietro, including canvases and relics.
Church of the Addolorata or of San Francesco da Paola. built in the seventeenth century, it stands in Piazza Rossetti, has a single nave interior with side chapels including one dedicated to the Madonna del Rosario and one to Don Cesare Michelangelo d'Avalos.

Other churches in the historic center
Orthodox Church of Our Lady of Constantinople: in the Aragona palace, via Genova Rulli
Church of the Holy Trinity: in via Laccetti
Church of Santa Filomena: in via Fratelli Palizzi at the intersection with via Anelli, the Genova Rulli building is located next to it.
Church of the Santissima Annunziata: facing the church of Santa Filomena in via Anelli, has a facade facing Porta Nuova. It was built in the thirteenth century as a monastery of the Dominican Fathers, it was also described in the "Travels in the Abruzzi" by Father Serafino Razzi, who signed up there in 1578. It has a late Baroque and neoclassical appearance.
Church of the Madonna delle Grazie: located at the end of via Adriatica, on the border with via Roma, it has a neoclassical appearance, but dates back to the Middle Ages.

 

Churches of the hamlets and outside the center

Church of Santa Maria Stella Maris: main neo-Gothic church (from 1903) in the Vasto Marina district.
Parish Church of San Francesco d'Assisi: dating back to 2001, it is the largest church in the Marina
Church of Santa Maria di Pennaluce: the neo-Gothic church located next to the lighthouse of Punta Penna, rebuilt in the 19th century, has medieval origins.
Church of San Lorenzo: in the homonymous district.
Monastery of Sant'Onofrio: located in the district of the same name, although the convent was deconsecrated, the church is still active, and preserves a monumental Baroque altar, and a 13th century crucifix.
Sanctuary of the Incoronata Madonna and Capuchin convent: in via Incoronata in the 18th century. In the early 1900s it underwent heavy renovations in neo-Romanesque and neoclassical styles.

 

Civil architectures

The town of Vasto and above all its historic center is characterized by a multitude of historic buildings whose construction and style ranges from the 15th to the 20th century.

Aragona Palace
The Palace is located near the municipal villa, built in 1522 by Dario d'Antonello, who dedicated it to Maria d'Aragona, Marquise of the city. The palace consisted of several bodies, organized to form three different courts, as well as a neviere (later demolished for the construction of the stadium), and a church (the chapel of Constantinople). A perspective view of the ancient complex existed in a painting by Elia Di Giacomo Leone (1860). Built with funds deposited in 1522 by a French officer of Lautrech headed south to the master jury Dario D'Antonello, it was bought by the Sonzzi di Guglionesi then in 1615 it passed to Giovan Carlo di Pompeo Bassano and from him it passed in emphyteusis to the Marquis Cesare Michelangelo d ' Avalos, who transformed it into a princely residence, and enriched it with art objects. On the death of the Marquis, the building fell into neglect. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the complex, consisting of 21 rooms on the ground floor and 14 on the upper floors, with its tower and the church of Constantinople was redeemed by the Duchess Maria Teresa Cestari aunt of Ortensia D'Avalos who, without heirs, he secretly donated to his niece Ortensia, wife of Giovanni Quarto di Belgioioso, who entrusted the complex to an administrator: Avveduto Bartoli Avveduti. In 1897 Maria Antonietta Bartoli was born here Avveduti in art Elena Sangro, diva of silent cinema, companion of Gabriele d'Annunzio. In 1922 the complex was sold to Umberto Mariani and his wife Giulia Zaccagnini, very wealthy emigrants returning from America, who modified it by adding new bodies. The spaces used today as exhibition halls and cultural center are the same in which the tobacco processing workshops were located in the 1950s. They have been called "Scuderie di Palazzo Aragona", in honor of the Duke of Belgioioso, a well-known horse lover, and in memory of the ancient use of the post station. Here is an exhibit commemorating the 1723 Golden Fleece ceremony.

D'Avalos Palace
The palace was built by Giacomo Caldora, as attested by the first document that speaks of this palace: it is a document of 1427 which establishes compensation from Giacomo Caldora himself to the friars, only to be later property of the d'Avalos, who they never used it as a residence.

During the Turkish invasion it was put to fire and sword by Piyale Pasha due to the absence of the owners.

The Palace consists of a courtyard and garden, of which the garden has recently been restored, and two levels with neoclassical features on the windows. Little or nothing remains of its original appearance, as well as of the ancient theater inside.

Currently it is the seat of the archaeological museum, of the costume and of the art gallery. The archaeological section houses female statues, heads of Aphrodite, Eros, Zeus and Silenus, as well as a series of bronze statuettes, all depicting the figure of Heracles. The Pinacoteca contains a sector dedicated to contemporary painting and in particular to that of the 19th century, where you can admire works by Filippo Palizzi, Valerio Laccetti, Francesco Paolo Michetti, all artists from Abruzzo and Giulio Aristide Sartorio.

Palazzo della Penna
Its construction took place thanks to Innico III d'Avalos, who had settled in the city together with his cousin Isabella d'Avalos, in the esplanade north of the inhabited center, near the Lebba stream and its valley, completed between 1615 (building main) and 1621.

The Palace has a square plan, fortified at the corners by four bulwarks, a spacious courtyard, large rooms, semi-surrounded by a fence also protected at the edges by ramparts and including a series of factories used as service rooms. Elegantly furnished, the Palazzo was frequently inhabited by both its founder and his sons, Ferrante and Diego.

On 20 June 1711 it was sacked by the Turks and on 25 February 1713 it became the property of Innico's nephew, Don Cesare Michelangelo d'Avalos, returning to Vasto after 12 years of political exile. This domain marked the period of greatest splendor in the history of the Palace which, restored and embellished, hosted many characters of the Kingdom who stopped in the city, such as the Constable Fabrizio Colonna, who came to Vasto to receive the collar of the Order of the Toson d ' gold and was a guest three times in the Palace.

With the death of the Marquis in 1729, the Palace fell into total abandonment, becoming an unhealthy and solitary place, around which popular imagination intertwined fearful stories of devils and witches. Hence, probably also the birth of the name of "Palazzo dei Cento Diavoli", because according to legend, thirteen chimneys appeared in one night, in addition to the stories born around the famous "Grotta della Carnaria" where the popular will wanted a devil to live, and to the tunnel that probably connected it to the Palace.

Luigi Anelli, in his volume "Origin of some popular idioms in the Vasto dialect", recalled the saying "Go to call 'lu duiàvele a la grotte di la Carnarejje" ("Go call the devil to the Carnaria cave") , as advice given to those who have the will to become rich.

In 1835 the estate was purchased by Giuseppe Antonio Rulli, who restored the palace, re-established the settlers and reclaimed the marshes in the area, and thanks to the munificence of Baron Luigi Genova, who died at the age of ninety-two, the palace became seat of the orphanage for orphans, and remained open until the 1980s, and then fell again into the abandonment in which it exists.

Palazzetto Nibio Cardone
Built in 1576, it overlooks Via Adriatica, belonging to the Genoese merchant Domenico Nibio (Domenico Niggio) where he worked as a merchant until his death in 1593. In the eighteenth century it was used as a military barracks called "Quartiere", only to be bought by the Cardone family and later became a library and municipal archive after the war.

According to reports, the building, in its military period, was where Scura maje, a folk song from Abruzzo, was composed.

Genova-Rulli Palace
Located in Via Anelli in the Porta Nuova district. Originally a hospital (1430), then a Dominican convent (1523) which was devastated by the raids of the Saracen ships in 1566. Renovated by the D'Avalos in 1588, it was then confiscated by the Napoleonic government in 1809 and purchased in 1814 by Luigi Rulli di Salcito. In 1828 from the marriage between the Rulli family and Genoa began the branch of the family which from then on will be called Genova-Rulli and which will become the owner of the building (now owned by the Curia) .The building was renovated and adapted from famous local architect of the Neapolitan school Nicola Maria Pietrocola with original solutions. It is adjacent and connected to the church of S. Filomena. Inside there is a classic example of a medieval hortus conclusus of about 800 m².

Historic buildings in Piazza Caprioli
Palazzo Benedetti, built between the second half of 1600 and 1700, seat of the Court for a short period and home to illustrious Vasto families, such as the Caprioli, Magnacervo and Agricoletti
Palazzo Mennini, a building dating back to the 16th century. It overlooks Piazza Caprioli, with a façade delimited by two large lateral pilasters, which branch off from a hinted brick base, and contiguous to Palazzo Smargiassi, bordering a simple building at the beginning of via Buonconsiglio. Divided into two floors, it has an arched door, which gives access to a large room, from which the staircase leads to the upper floors on the right. On the first floor there are two windows bordered by a string course, decorated with simple cornices, surmounted by lintels with circular broken tympanums. On the secondary floor there is a balcony protected by railings on which two openings are prone, delimited by simple lateral cornices with circular gables as well, decorated by a series of struts at the base. The lunettes of the architraves of the windows and of the two balconies bear faint traces of frescoes.

 

Palazzo Smargiassi, once the seat of the Chancellery and the Council of the University of Vasto, home of the Milanese Invitti family. The construction, in the materials used, responds to the use of terracotta introduced by the Romans, which was widely used for masonry and for roofing (tiles), as well as for the construction of floors (broad bricks). The brick walls are plastered and punctuated by moldings and painting with a dominant color, light with shaded decorations. The connecting element between the external space and its surroundings consists of a hadron covering a barrel vault, with intermediate arches resting on the side parts. This is followed by a part of the "light" courtyard, which had a cistern fed by an impluvium, from which the staircase departs, resting on two pillars-columns that support the access landings to the rooms of the two floors, on the original floor. in stone. The façade, contiguous with Palazzo Meninni, runs throughout the building on tiles, and four regularly squared windows are set, surmounted by a tympanum on the first floor, the central arched with curved profile, the lateral ones with a pointed arch
Four balconies above decorated with a gable frame in symmetrical and elegant ornamentation, protected by artistic wrought iron railings decorate the whole.

Palaces of the XVIII-XIX centuries
Palazzo Miscione, located in Via Pampani: it is known with this name for having been the property of the noble Francesco Miscione, husband of the noblewoman Filomena dei Baroni Genova. Made of terracotta and tiles, it has masonry plastered and painted with the dominant color of the period: gray and light. The connecting element between the external and internal space consists of an entrance hall with a barrel vault roof, with intermediate arches resting on the side walls. The pavement is made of pebbles with rhomboidal squares, designed with rows of bricks fixed to the side. The multi-spiral cornice runs throughout the building, which on Via Pampani is delineated by two lateral pilasters. Five windows are set there, regularly squared on the first floor and as many slightly overhanging balconies, equipped with thick glass windows, decorated with floral motifs, and volutes on the handrail of the wrought iron railings. On the street level there is a central arched door and two symmetrical antri, also arched, are other portals intended for carriages and horses.
Palazzo Ciccarone, located in Corso Plebiscito (where the citizens voted in favor of the Unification of Italy): the building follows the architectural lines in vogue in the eighteenth century, in terracotta. It originally belonged to the De Nardis family and consisted of a floor, which in 1823 was bought by Francesco Paolo Ciccarone. His nephew Francesco described the building as it was before the renovation, when the areas of the study, the noble apartment, the green living room were used as a henhouse, next to a chapel dedicated to San Teodoro, in homage to the body that Archdeacon De Nardis had brought in from Rome. The palace was the scene of an event that projected Vasto in the context of the proclamation of the plebiscite for the unification of Italy. In fact, on October 14, 1860, the marquis of Villamarina Salvatore Pes, passing through Vasto to meet Vittorio Emanuele II, was hosted in the palace, and appeared on the balcony, acclaimed by the crowd, with a chapel bearing the inscription SI for Unity national.

Palazzo del Carmine, adjacent to the homonymous church. Between via Marchesani and via Fornorosso, it was built in 1738 at the same time as the renovation of the Carmine church. Following the demolition of the old medieval houses, this conventual palace was built, with the assignment of the Lucchesi Fathers, who settled in Vasto at the behest of the Marquises d'Avalos, so that it was used as a youth education institute. In 1761 the buildings adjacent to the church were opened, the clerics taught grammar, rhetoric, philosophy and Christian doctrine. In 1762 the building was enriched by the convent cloister, today the courtyard, in 1809 the college was suppressed, the cloister was destined to house the command of the Gendarmerie, then the public school and municipal offices. In the 1920s the building was assigned to the Gabriellisti di Monfort fathers to manage the Istonio College, which was subsequently suppressed because the fathers moved to the Immaculate Institute. Thus the palace became the seat of the Archbishop's Curia: it has an eighteenth-century aspect with a quadrangular plan, of which little remains of the ancient convent. The interior retains the porticoed cloister with garden.

 

Palazzo Fanghella-Caldarelli-Michelangelo, located between Via Raffaello and Corso De Parma: the building is of considerable architectural interest. When in the early twentieth century Corso De Parma was subjected to demolition and renovation of buildings, in order to widen the street, in the years 1910-12, with the widening of the street, the building, which had already existed for some centuries, was subjected to alterations, with the facade set in neoclassical style. The building develops with a ground floor, a first and second floor, terrace and under-terrace, and the vertical wall structures are in brick, while the horizontal ones are in brick arches and vaults; a part in the attic made with iron beams and sinks. The facade overlooking Piazza L.V. Pudent, in the part of the ground floor it is made up of three architraved openings, while the upper floors are outlined by four pilasters surmounted by as many capitals and integrated by an overhanging cornice, supported by decorative underlining. On the first floor there are three architraved windows framed by triangular gables on the sides and with an arch in the center. On the second three balconies framed with arched tympanums and a triangle in the center, these projections are in marble, supported by iron shelves with volutes. The parapets overlooking the square are in wrought iron, and decorated with intertwined flowers in the shape of a lily. The entrance door is on via Raffaello, framed and archivolted, the access from the stairs is paved with Carrara marble.
Palazzo Mayo, located in Piazza Pudente. The palace was built by the noble Vasto family, second in importance after the D'Avalos, who had control of the area of ​​Piazza Pudente, Vico Gioiosa and the area of ​​the Marchesale Palace. Excavations have brought to light a terracotta floor, a sign that the palace was built over a house which was in turn built over a Roman domus. Several eminent family members were born in the palace, such as Venceslao Mayo, Nerino and Equizio. The part of the building on vico Giosia is in terracotta, following the style of the classic Renaissance buildings of the city.
Palazzo Palmieri, built in 1856, located in Piazza Rossetti and adjacent to the Caldoresco Castle. It is one of the buildings with the highest urban architecture in the city. Inserted in the bulk of the Castle, unfortunately having destroyed one of the bastions, it dates back to 1439, when it was the residence of the Captain of the Arms. It was built by Jacopo Caldora, then passed into the hands of his eldest son Antonio, from where he fought the soldiers of King Ferrante of Aragon in 1464. In 1499 it became the property of the d'Avalos, after a total renovation. In 1856 Salvatore Palmieri bought it, building a new civil complex, equipping it with services, while preserving the current conformation of the castle along Corso Garibaldi and Piazza Diomede, where the corner bastions are. The building obeys the architectural criteria of the time, with the front facing Piazza Rossetti, with an ashlar brick facade, central entrance door and four side openings on the ground floor. The upper floor shows four windows, the upper floor has five balconies decorated with frames and lintels with slight projection, interspersed with ashlar pilasters. The façade on Piazza Diomede has the same conformation, with two side balconies and a central one, which includes two openings, on the left side that is on Piazza Rossetti there is another building with three openings on the ground floor and mezzanine, dominated by a terrace on which stands the cylindrical tower crowned by battlements.

Ritucci Chinni Palace
Built in the twentieth century by the former mayor Florindo Ritucci Chinni in Venetian neo-Gothic style, it overlooks Piazza Lucio Valerio Pudente a few meters from the Cathedral of Vasto. The building is superimposed on an ancient medieval building, offering a particular Venetian scenic effect: on the first central floor there are three arched mullioned windows with decorated sill. On the second a balcony with columns in the center with a mullioned window, and on the sides two mullioned windows, pointed arch. The string course is decorated with floral elements, on the third level the building has an aerial loggia with 13 arched windows, marked by the ornate string course. In the lateral façade on the right there are two mullioned arched windows with an ornate sill, on the second floor a balcony with columns on which an arched mullioned window and a framed eye opens. On the street level the central door opens, decorated with a pointed arch and four openings on the simple ashlar.

 

Art Nouveau buildings

Dating back to the twenty years and mostly present between Via De Amicis, Via Asmara and Via Vittorio Veneto, in the district of Corso Nuova Italia. They include:

Bottari Palace, Brindisi, Della Penna: built in the Thirties, in liberty style. The main facade is on Corso Nuova Italia, while that of Via XXIV Maggio has the entrance door, outlined by a band that marks the whole building, covered in scratched ashlar. On the façade of the Corso, on the ground floor, there are four windows that are repeated on the façade of the other street. On the first and second floor, on the façade of via XXIV Maggio, there are two side balconies, and two central windows, decorated with simple arches, the ones in the center with round arches.
Palazzo Cieri-Cavallone: ​​built in the 1930s, it has a mixed style between liberty and neoclassical, presenting a light ashlar base, on which the access door and the two side doors open on the facade onto Corso Italia. The two upper floors have two side balconies with openings bordered by gables and outlined by a slightly projecting string course. The facade on via Asmara has two side balconies, with an opening surmounted by a tympanum and two central windows, always surmounted by tympanums; on the ground floor two windows under two balconies and two central openings. The building is clad in red bricks, decorated with corner pilasters with string course and sill marker bordered by a projecting band.
Palazzo De Sanctis: built on a project by Antonio Izzi, it was built in 1926-29, overlooking Corso Italia. On the façade, on the two floors, three balconies alternated by a window, decorated with columns above with tympanums and an arch on the first floor, and a triangle on the upper floor. The string course, in the first and second level, is decorated with floral motifs. Two lateral pilasters are made of simple ashlar, the same conformation in the lateral bands of the building. On the ground floor, in addition to the central door, four openings for commercial activities, with ashlar bands.
Palazzo Martella: overlooks Corso Italia, built in 1933-35 on a project by Giuseppe Peluzzo da Vincenzo La Palombara. The building is covered with scratched plaster that imitates travertine. On the façade overlooking Corso Italia, on the ground floor, there is the main door in the center, and two side openings with a round arch decoration in ashlar bands. Motifs that repeat on the facade of via IV Novembre. On the first and second floors, respectively, there is a balcony decorated with a frame and an arch with protective grilles in the center, and on the sides two side balconies on which there are two floor windows. On the right side facade there are windows decorated with arched frames.
Palazzo Melle-Molino: built in 1929 has unique decorative elements of its kind, compared to the adjacent buildings of the same period. It was designed by the engineer A. Saraceni di Palmoli in a single block surmounted by an adjacent turret on via Asmara. The central body has two balconies with columns and two windows decorated with slight tympanums. The turret has three floors with relative balconies and three-mullioned columns delimited by lateral pilasters, surmounted by floral festoon decorations. The side part has two gable windows per floor and levers that also project onto the sill.
Politeama Ruzzi: located in Corso Nuova Italia. It dates back to 1931. A renovation damaged the interior. During the Fascist period, the Corso Nuova Italia district was built outside the historic center of Vasto. The initial project dates back to 1906 and was then built in 1924. Many buildings that overlook the street some are in neoclassical style, others in liberty style. The Politeama was to have social and cultural functions as well as host the meetings of the National Fascist Party. The first project was designed by the engineer Antonio Izzi in 1927 with curved lines, floral motifs and stained glass windows with mullioned windows and three-mullioned windows in the style of Art Nouveau. The facade has a portico with five arches. The initials of the commissioner Giovanni Ruzzi are engraved on the keystones of the round arches. On the upper floors the pilasters have various decorations. Some points of the architecture recall late nineteenth-century academicism, and some decorations, in addition to the aforementioned Art Nouveau, to the style of the Viennese Secession.
Palazzo Tenaglia: the construction dates back to the 1930s, following the style of the other buildings. The main façade on the ground floor has four openings decorated with cornices culminating in a round arch, with ashlar plaster. The string course marks the first floor decorated with floral motifs, with two side balconies, on the first and second floors, and two windows in the center; three windows are in the side block. A slightly overhanging cornice supports the cornice of the roof supported by pillars.

 

Palazzo Vicoli: it was built at the beginning of the 1930s on Corso Italia, about 30 meters long, interspersed with a tripartite division of smooth ashlar pilasters, with subdivision of framed pilasters. On two floors, along the street, there are four balconies interspersed with double windows separated by ashlar pilasters on the first floor, surmounted by pointed tympanums, on the ground floor there is an opening in the shape of aedicules. The side facade has three windows marked by the string course.

The exceptions are Palazzo Florio, located in Piazza Diomede and Palazzo Miscione, in Via Leopardi.
The Florio Palace: is located in Piazza Diomede, and appears inserted, tall and narrow, in a building block of the same height, but rather poor. The building has been restored, with emphasis on the colors that follow the decorations of the two full-height lateral pilasters, fluted in the upper part with ashlar in the lower part up to the first floor that recall a certain decorative mannerism. The two pilasters surmounted in the upper part by two capitals, continue to support a slightly overhanging cornice. The liberty elements stand out the two architraved windows with linear frames on the first floor, protected by a sill resting on the string course, protected by small columns.

Internment camp of Villa Marchesani - Pensione Ricci:
They were located in the Villa Santoro (ex Villa Marchesani) in Via A. Marchesani and in the Ricci hotel (Ex Villa Ricci) in Corso Zara both in Vasto Marina.

The concentration camps of Vasto Marina date back to 11 June 1940 and at the request of the military authorities they were requested to close them to prevent espionage acts in August 1943, but in the armistice of 8 September 1943 it was still functional for some Slavic prisoners , however, it had to work until the end of the month.

The director, until August 16, 1943, was Giuseppe Prezioso, later replaced by Deputy Commissioner of State Police Giuseppe Geraci (both later wanted by Yugoslavia for crimes together with Fabiano Pisticci). There were 12 carabinieri as overseers and Nicola D'Agostino as health assistant. 181 seats were occupied out of an estimated capacity of 170 people, however, on a previous note of April 27, 1940 it is stated that the estimated capacity is 480 people.

The various prisoners in the camp were anti-fascists and Italians considered dangerous. From July to October 1940 Giuseppe Scalarini was confined, to whom in January 2012 the city dedicated an important exhibition at the Pinacoteca di Palazzo d'Avalos. However, there is no shortage of Jews or people of Jewish origin such as Dr. Herman Datyner, a Jew of Polish nationality, who was transferred to this prison from Casoli. Later, various Slavs were also transferred there.

Mauro Venegoni and Angelo Pampuri were transferred to the colony of the Tremiti in January 1941 for subversive acts discovered by the director through a report of some inmates. Rodolfo Pellicella known as Leonin, an anti-fascist worker was transferred to Ventotene for having addressed words, in a tone of voice, accompanied by gesticulations, addressed to the carabinieri considered mocking. After the fall of fascism (25 July 1943), the Ministry of the Interior, due to lack of vacancies in other concentration camps, has the prisoners considered more dangerous transferred until they are closed in September.

 

Military architectures

Caldoresco Castle
The Caldoresco Castle is located on a promontory overlooking the coast. It consists of bastions at the corners. The original part dates back to the XIV-XV century with transformations carried out in 1439 by Giacomo Caldora perhaps in the external part. In the 15th century the previous palace was transformed into a castle by the d'Avalos. Other transformations were made by Cesare Michelangelo d'Avalos in the 18th century. The square plan has four angular almond-shaped bastions (today one is missing), and a larger circular tower full of battlements, and a smaller side tower, transformed in the eighteenth century. The ramparts are lanceolate towers, with a low body without openings on a shoe base, with an intermediate frame, and pointed arching.

Aragona Castle and Miramare Castle

Castello Aragona (originally Villa Ruzzi), located in Via San Michele, currently a prestigious restaurant. Although it is called "castle", it is an early 20th century villa, built in the period of liberty and neo-gothic experimentalism in Vasto. It has a rectangular plan, with four corner towers, decorated with battlements and corbels, plus a lookout wing located on one side, much higher and slender than the others. At the belvedere overlooking the sea there is a courtyard with a masonry garden.
Miramare Castle, near the municipal villa in the center, quadrangular red tower, overlooking the sea and the gulf. Officially known as "Villa Virginia", or also Angelucci Castle, it was built in 1930 on a project by Giovanni Barbanti. The castle is characterized by hanging arches with battlements in imitation of the typical romantic Tuscan. It has overhangs that support a lateral loggia, and a balcony in the corner to the left on which a tower rises with a rounded arched roof, with decoration, while five arched windows open on the facade of via Tre Segni. On the opposite side facing the sea, a loggia and some embattled overhangs on the top of the terrace; the entrance has two columns that open a monumental staircase for access to the door.

 

City walls and gates

In ancient times the city was surrounded by fortified walls, which took their final shape in between 1439 and 1493 at the behest of captain Jacopo Caldora and his son Antonio. Although most of the walls were demolished in the nineteenth century, the entrance to the city was given by access gates, two of which are still preserved. The Caldoresco Castle and the various control towers, such as Torre di Bassano, Torre Diomede and Torre Santo Spirito, were part of the defensive wall system. In 1588 the city gates were four, although several passages were subsequently opened on the perimeter of the city.

Porta Castello: it was located between the south-east side of the castle, the side of Piazza Rossetti, with access to Piazza Diomede. It consisted of a bridge supported by masonry shoulders, on the upper arch, in 1656, a stone taken from the basilica of San Michele di Monte Sant'Angelo was placed to protect the earthquake victims, also given the very strong devotion of the Vasto towards the saint . The decorations were made up of two marble capitals, which bore the inscription "servari et servare meum est Diniunt pariter Renovantque labores". In 1828 the arch of the door was first demolished, in 1832 also the two shoulders with the jambs.

Porta Catena or Santa Maria: still visible today, it is located in the chapel of the same name, overlooking Loggia Amblingh. The only surviving example of a medieval porch, part of the ancient city walls: externally it has a pointed arch in bricks which, at the shutters, rests on two stone slabs. On the left side it has a stone hinge grafted that had a cylindrical hollow to accommodate the pivot of the door. Internally it includes an uncovered release with the other lower arch. Presumably the construction dates back to the Caldorian restructuring of the walls (1391-1439).
Porta Palazzo: it was located at the Palazzo d'Avalos in Piazza del Popolo, north-east side towards the current viewpoint of the Via Adriatica. It allowed the exit towards the eastern part, already existing before the Caldorian restructuring of the walls. In 1603 it was restored at the University's expense, in 1644 a plaque with the civic coat of arms was still visible, and was later demolished. Already at the time of the historian Marchesani it no longer existed, but the toponym is still preserved to indicate the corner of Piazza del Popolo, with the road that descends along the ridge of the blade.

Porta Nuova: it already existed since 1544, located in the Guasto d'Aimone district, in via Roma, near the ancient convent of San Domenico (today the church of the Annunziata), and allows access to Corso Palizzi. In 1790 the mastrogiurato Baron Tambelli carried out the restoration and built the civic emblem, placed at the top of the round arch, with the plaque that reads PORTAM HANC PER COMMODAM / LOCO STRUCTURAQUE MELIOREM / E FUNDAMENTIS, AERE PUBLICO / MAGISTER JURATIS D. JOSEPH / TAMBELLI, RESTITUIT CURAVIT / YEAR MDCCXC. (1790)

In 1950 the door was decorated with a majolica oculus depicting St. Peter, the work of Michele Provicoli.

 

Towers

Torre di Bassano: it is located in piazza Rossetti. It is the best preserved tower in the Vasto walls, commissioned by Jacopo Caldora in 1439, and then administered by various other families. It has four apartments, the stone with the coat of arms of the royal arms, the University coat of arms, on the first floor includes a series of arches that take the form of protruding battlements that produce a swelling of the outer diameter of the cylinder, with shelves arched, but less accentuated than in the ramparts of the Caldora Castle. Upstairs the building narrows and appears rounded to ovule, to finally continue in a cylindrical shape. The final pine is decorated by a protruding ledge, whose parapet is supported by corbels connected with semi-oval arches with a soft curvature. The tower belonged to the d'Avalos in 1500, then passed to the Bassano, an ancient family of Padua. In 1814 the telegraph was placed on top of the tower.
Diomede del Moro Tower: overlooking Piazzetta Diamante, it is part of the fortifications built by Jacopo Caldora to defend the city (15th century). In 1800 it was reduced to a warehouse and then a home, after being abandoned, undergoing subsequent devastation and questionable renovations. Walls have been erected on the battlements of this cylindrical monument to delimit the room for the house built inside. In the trunk of the tower there is a precious stone engraved with the "royal arms".
Torre di Santo Spirito: overlooking Piazza Verdi. Also called Torre Diamante, it was part of the defensive walls built by Caldora in 1439; on the bastion the stone affostavi in ​​1493 is still visible on which were superimposed engravings of the royal coats of arms, the Town Hall and the University of Vasto. The tower brings to mind the presence of the Celestino Fathers in Vasto, founders of the monastery of Santo Spirito, above which the current Rossetti Theater was built in the 19th century. The tower has a cylindrical plan, having the original base with corbels and battlements, and the upper part renovated because it was used as a dwelling.
Torre Sinello, whose remains are located in the locality of the same name in the Punta Aderci Nature Reserve. The first plant dates back to the 16th century. The tower is placed in order to control the port of Vasto in the Spanish era. He was in close visual contact with other nearby towers including the Torre di Punta Penna and that of the Sangro in the municipality of Torino di Sangro. The Abruzzo towers were finished in 1569.
Torre di Punta Penna: located in Punta Penna. As for the previous tower, the first plant dates back to the 16th century, it must have been completed in 1569 and was in close visual contact with the neighboring towers, but unlike it, as well as with the Sinello Tower, it was in contact with the Torre del Trigno, in the San Salvo area, controlling the inlet that houses the current port of Vasto.

 

Archaeological sites

Piazza Rossetti preserves the ellipsoidal shape of the amphitheater.
In Via Cavour there are the ruins of the cisterns of Santa Chiara built in opus signinum.
In Via Adriatica there are the thermal baths dating back to the 2nd century AD. divided into three levels.
At the hospital there are some wall remains of a building from the end of the first half of the second century AD.
In Via V. Lancetti there are Small Cisterns.
At Via S. and F. Ciccarone there is an archaeological ruin called the chapel of the Madonna del Soccorso. From this place comes the funerary slab of Caius Hosidius Veteranus now placed in the archaeological museum of Vasto.
In Via Antonio Bosco 16 there is a Roman temple.

 

Squares and main streets

Piazza "Gabriele Rossetti": the area of ​​the ancient Roman amphitheater of Histonium, was built around 1924, since before it was only a dirt road for the market. It has a semi-elliptical appearance, tracing the shapes of the amphitheater, with the monument to the poet Rossetti in the center, surrounded by four large palm trees. The small houses of the Santa Maria Maggiore district, Palazzo Palmieri, the church of San Francesco di Paola, and the southern access to Corso Italia overlook the square.
Piazza Lucio Valerio Pudente: small square dedicated to the poet of Histonium who won the laurel wreath in a certame in Rome. The Palazzo d'Avalos, Palazzo Mayo and the side of the Cathedral of San Giuseppe overlook it.
Piazza Barbacani: there is the eighteenth-century Fontana Grande, moved from Piazza Pudente, and the Caldoresco Castle and the modern town hall overlook it.
Corso De Parma: ancient via Corsea, is the watershed between the ancient districts Guasto Gisone and Guasto d'Aymone. Refurbished in the early 1900s, with the construction of ancient Art Nouveau buildings, there are Palazzo Ritucci Chinni, Palazzo Fanghella, and the Cathedral.

 

Corso Italia: built in the 1930s, it is the first new city street, overlooking Piazza Rossetti and the small square facing the entrance to the municipal villa. The main buildings are the Politeama Ruzzi, the Palazzo De Sanctis, the Palazzo Cieri Cavallone, the Palazzo Martella.
Loggia Amblingh: takes its name from the secretary of the Palazzo d'Avalos Guglielmo Amblingh, and is the panoramic walk of the Santa Maria Maggiore district, which includes the section of the walls with tower-houses, including the Rossetti House, the descent to Fonte Jovine, the chapel of the Madonna della Catena, and the entrance to the district from Porta Santa Maria. The loggia is broken by the retaining wall of the garden of Palazzo d'Avalos, which forces you to go up towards Piazza Pudente, while at the other end you go up to Piazza Cavour.
Corso Garibaldi: street built in the early 1900s, which runs alongside Piazza Rossetti, the Castle and various houses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, built outside the perimeter of the walls. Through a roundabout it merges with Corso Mazzini.
Corso Plebiscito: extreme thistle of the ancient wall perimeter of Guasto d'Aimone, which ends at Torre Santo Spirito, starting from the church of Carmine. The historic buildings found there are for example the Palazzo Ciccarone and the Palazzo Nibio Cardone, together with the Rossetti Theater, as well as Torre Diomede and Torre Santo Spirito, finds from the ancient city walls.
Corso Dante Alighieri: main decumanus of the ancient city, it cuts the neighborhood horizontally up to the sea view: there are the church of San Teodoro (via San Francesco), the church of Santa Filomena and that of the Annunziata (via Anelli) , and the Palazzo Genova Rulli.
Corso Palizzi: main cardo of the ancient city, it has access from Porta Nuova and the monuments that meet there are various eighteenth-century palaces, including the churches of the Annunziata and Santa Filomena.
Via Adriatica - Muro delle Lame: it was built in about 1960 after the serious landslide of 1956. In addition to medieval and eighteenth-century houses still well preserved, there is the facade of the ancient church of San Pietro, the belvedere, and the church of Sant Antonio di Padova, with the complex of the Roman baths.

 

Commemorative monuments

"Monument to Gabriele Rossetti", located in the square of the same name in the historic center, the work of Filippo Cifariello
"Monument to the emigrant", located in Piazza Belvedere Romani, the work of the sculptor Aldo d'Adamo from Orton (of which there is a twin monument in Perth inaugurated on 13 January 2008)
"Monumento alla Bagnante", placed on a cliff in the extreme north of Vasto Marina, by Aldo d'Adamo
"Monument to the fallen of Vasto of the First and Second World War", initially located in Piazza Pudente and currently in Piazza Caprioli.
"Monument to the fallen of the sea", located in Via Adriatica.
"Croce di Montevecchio", located on the top of the homonymous hill of Vasto Marina, installed in wood in 1933 (19th centenary of the death of Christ) by the Capuchin Friars, and then restored in metal and inaugurated in the 90
"Monument to the Carabinieri", located in Via Alborato, made with Majella stone in honor of the bicentenary of the Arma (2014), by Giuseppe Colangelo, whose inauguration was attended by Pietro Grasso

 

Fountains

Fonte della Piazza: built in 1629 on commission of the d'Avalos family. and located in Piazza Barbacani (originally in Piazza Grande, now Piazza L.V. Pudente, from where it was transferred in 1927). In 1839 it was enriched by an artistic gate by Nicola Maria Pietrocola which no longer exists. The fountain consists of an octagonal basin made of stone. On four sides masks are also inserted in stone. Some torches allow the water to flow out through a stem decorated with chipping and surmounted by a cup. Access to the fountain is allowed through two steps.
Fonte Nuova: located in Via di Porta Palazzo. The fountain was built in 1814 to channel the waters that flowed from the chapel of the Madonna della Neve. Later it was destroyed by the landslide of 1816. It was later rebuilt in 1848 by order of the then mayor Pietro Muzii. The project is by Nicola Maria Pietrocola. The source is also called "Tambelli". It has recently been cleared of the vegetation that covered it. In the center there is a round arch with pilasters on the sides. A stone mask is placed above the arch of the vault. Within a gate there is a nymphaeum from which, through a torch, the water comes out and pours into a stone tank used as an aquarium.

 

Destroyed monuments

Monastery of Santo Spirito: in Vasto the Celestine Fathers were present in the church since 1362, as shown in a document by the notary Mascio, who owned the church of San Biagio di Castiglione, given to them in 1233, receiving some privileges in 1544. small church was transformed into a convent, with the annexed Tower of Santo Spirito, which still exists today. Devastated by the Turkish raids of 1566, the monastery was rebuilt in 1573 with a special altar dedicated to San Biagio, when Placido da Manfredonia was prior, confirmed in this position by the University of Vasto. On the night of June 14, 1590, a group of bandits, led by Marco Sciarra, managed to penetrate through the tower and sacked the city, including the convent. In the 17th century the Marquis del Vasto Innico d'Avalos tried to restore the cliff near the sources of the Angrella, and where the convent was located, whose brothers risked the contagion of epidemics.
From the descriptions of the convent, there was a garden in the cloister surrounded by walls, which incorporated the hospital of Sant'Antonio, with the homonymous church, of which we have news since 1387, at the time entrusted to the Order of the Knights of Malta , who owned the nearby church of San Giovanni (also now missing). In 1644 there is news of the presence of the relic of the arm of San Biagio, in 1742 the Marquis del Vasto owned some rooms of the convent, suppressed in 1807 with the Napoleonic laws. The College of Tailors of Vasto took it upon itself to have you perform the functions in honor of San Bonomo, venerated in the monastery, and to administer the very substantial income, as evidenced by an act of 1695 which speaks of 72 ducats per year and 43 grains.
With the Treaty of Vienna of 1815, the Order of Malta was dissolved, and so the church, already dilapidated, was bought by the De Pompeis family to build a palace there. The Vasto municipality, however, wanted the construction of a public theater, deriving it from the portion of the deconsecrated cloister, naming it after the sovereign Ferdinand II. The works began in 1818 and ended the following year, although the theater was unfinished, definitively completed in 1832 on the occasion of the visit of the King of the Two Sicilies.

Church of San Giovanni dei Cavalieri di Malta: there is news of the church of San Giovanni Gerosolimitano since 1300, which is also mentioned in a document by the notary Mascio Di Cola of San Giovanni Teatino in 1362. The church belonged to the Order of Templars of Malta, who also founded a hospital there, by privilege granted by Charles III of Anjou in 1304. The church was located in the Porta Nuova district, as described in catalogs of 1695 and 1749. In 1605 the church was still owned by the Templars, and the Congrega di San Bonomo served there. In 1695 the church was reduced to a single nave, preserving of interest only a painting of the "Virgin and Child between Sant'Anna, San Giovanni Battista, San Bonomo and San Leonardo". In 1815 the Order was abolished, and so the church fell into neglect, passing to the royal state property. With the deed of the notary Vincenzo Marchesani of June 19, 1833, the church almost completely collapsed, was bought by the De Pompeis family who reduced it to a warehouse, until its subsequent demolition. It was located in the ancient street of San Giovanni, between the church of the Carmine and the facing Corso Dante.

 

Monastery of Santa Chiara: it was located in the current homonymous square, where there is the covered market. In 1585 the University of Vasto sent an application to the viceroy of Naples to build a monastery for the Poor Clares, and 500 ducats were initially allocated for the construction of the church. Initially the church was dedicated to Corpus Domini, and then to Santa Chiara d'Assisi, on 30 September 1609 three nuns of the Poor Clares Monastery outside the walls came from L'Aquila, namely Sister Feliciana Barone the abbess, Sister Arcangela Antonelli the vicar and Sister ADaria Valverde the novice mistress. The first novices of the monastery were 9, with a solemn vesting ceremony before the Marquis del Vasto, with the confessor Don Giovanni Battista Moschetta. In 1627 the loggia for the parlor was built, in 1653 the Marquis d'Avalos donated the relics of San Candido to the monastery and in 1655 the altar of the Rosary was erected. In the period of maximum splendor, in 1771, the monastery had 24 nuns, in 1824 it was in danger of being closed due to a poor vocation, when there were only 3 nuns. In 1838 the presence of 22 nuns in the choir, 3 converse, 13 boarders and 3 servants was recorded. On 2 August 1859, until 1863, Father Raffaele da Larino was confessor of the Poor Clares, residing in the convent of Sant'Onofrio. In 1917 the monastery was definitively closed due to the low number of nuns, in 1933 the church was definitively demolished, and later in the years the covered market was built there. The basements are still accessible, where there are large water cisterns, used since Roman times.
Palazzo Marchesani in Muro delle Lame: not to be confused with the namesake in Via Santa Maria, it was built in the eighteenth century, owned by the wealthy Vasto family of the Marquis. The building had a rectangular plan, developed in three levels, with string courses and light pilasters, in contrast with the dark color of the facade. It collapsed with the landslide of August 1956.

 

Natural areas

Municipal Villa: it was created in the 1930s in the Piano Aragona area, as the last outlet of Corso Italia, on the final end of Piazza Rossetti. The villa is one of the largest in Abruzzo, built around the Viale delle Rimembranze to celebrate the fallen of the Great War, and is divided into a park with a pond and a 1932 turret, which symbolizes the civic emblem, and a green area used for children's entertainment.
Villetta: small public park located along via Santa Caterina da Siena.
Neapolitan Garden of Palazzo d'Avalos: located next to the palace, facing the sea, restored to its ancient splendor that has given it back its original eighteenth-century layout. Between box hedges and rose bushes, it is possible to walk through the cross-shaped garden and the orthogonal paths, covered by a pergola, to add to the panoramic terrace. The cross organization is a very frequent solution in the cloisters of the Neapolitan gardens of the Baroque age, such as that of the cloister of Santa Chiara in Naples; in the center where the well is still located between four seats covered with majolica, there was a pavilion supported by columns, as well as two ornamental fountains with water features. Originally there was also a nymphaeum, in the small room that opens on the right, covered in a vault, with two small side niches originally covered in shells.
"Giuseppe Spataro" Park: villa located in the new area, in Largo Alcide De Gasperi.
Punta Aderci guided nature reserve: it was established with L.R.N. 9 of 20 February 1998: it is the first marine reserve in Abruzzo, born from the idea of ​​reconciling the naturalistic aspect of the natural area with the tourist one, relating to the usability of the beaches. The reserve covers an area of ​​about 285 hectares, and goes from the beach of Punta Penna, adjacent to the Vasto port, to the mouth of the Sinello river near Casalbordino Lido. In 2000 the municipality of Vasto adopted the Naturalistic Asset Plan of the reserve, drawn up by the COGECSTRE Cooperative of Penne, definitively approved by the Regional Council in 2007.
The long sandy beach of Punta Penna ends with the pebble beach of the Libertini, below the cliff of the promontory of Punta Aderci. Libertini beach is accessible both from Punta Penna and, via a path of 80 steps, from Punta Aderci. From the beach, continue on to the pebble beach of Mottagrossa, up to the Sinello estuary to the west. The most famous beaches in the area are Casarza beach, Canale, San Nicola and Vignola, where part of the many trabocchi present in Vasto are also visible (some of which are still restaurants).

Marina di Vasto Nature Reserve: it is located in the seaside area of the center, recognized as a Site of Community Interest, and borders with San Salvo. It contains about 60 hectares of coastline, parallel to the Adriatic highway, ending with the Mediterranean Botanical Garden of San Salvo. Along the cycle / pedestrian path, between the Duca degli Abruzzi seafront and the San Salvo marina, it is possible to appreciate one of the best preserved dune environments on the Adriatic coast, with the typical vegetation succession that from the plants most exposed to the marine salt, such as the maritime cakile (sea rocket), fades into the contours consolidated by Elytrigia juncea (agropiro) and Ammophila littoralis. Aided paths run through the various sectors of the protected area, also made up of wet grasslands, where the fratino nests.