Pettorano sul Gizio

memories of Dukes in the intricate maze of the “Rue”

The Name

According to the most accredited interpretation, the name comes from pectorale, for the breastplate shape of the town.

Others claim it derives from petra, because of the rockiness of the area, or else from the name of a village or estate connected with the Roman patrician Pictorius.

History

• 1093: the place name Pectoranum is mentioned for the first time in reference to the castle, whereas during the previous century it was generically used to indicate the entire valley.

• 12th cent.: with the coming of the Normans, the castle (the tower of which is of Lombard origin) develops into a strong economic and political entity, such that by the end of the century it becomes the seat of a very large fief.

• 1229: the army of Pope Gregory IX conquers the castle of Pettorano, inside which Frederick II’s partisans have barricaded themselves. After this episode the emperor brings the situation back under his own control by naming his son Frederick lord of the fief.. With the arrival of the Angevins, the entire fief is granted to the soldier Amiel d’Angoult, lord of Courbain.

• 1269: the fief passes to Oderisio de Ponte, who gives it to his daughter Giovanna, wed to the son of Amiel of Courbain.

• 1310: the fief is transferred to the Cantelmo nobles, probable descendents of the king and queen of Scotland, who had arrived in Italy from Provence following Charles I of Anjou. The Cantelmo family keeps Pettorano for over four centuries, until 1750.

• 16th-17th cent.: the village enjoys its golden age, the result of the economic recovery, the calming of the local political situation and the introduction of new architectural types during the building expansion.

• 1706: a strong earthquake seriously damages almost all of the buildings in the village.
• 1750: the Cantelmo are replaced by the Montemiletto, lords of Pettorano until the abolishment of the feudal system in 1806.

• 20th cent.: the village, already suffering from the phenomenon of seasonal emigration, begins to shrink in population following mass departures for America and Europe.

Baroque Portals, Folklore and Five Medieval Gates

The panorama is still one of the most beautiful in Abruzzo (in ancient times these areas had fascinated Ovid, in his Amores); however, observing the side of the village where a house-tower is set in the old walls, the austere atmosphere of the Middle Ages one senses here – brightened somewhat by the Baroque portals and ornamentation – is joined by a strong feeling of dismay. It is the emptiness left by emigration that leaves visitors with a barrenness in their soul.

The visitor looks around and thinks of all the life that used to pulsate in the town, while wandering aimlessly through the many small streets, the rue, that make their way down to the city walls, winding among stairways, courtyards, old buildings with walls often chipped and crumbling. The old cobblestone streets, the Cantelmo coats of arms faded by time, the Baroque portals and the inscriptions on the façades that still put on ducal airs, the stone of the ancient houses, the line of the city walls, and the mountain that envelops the town as if to encapsulate it in a spell: one does not forget Pettorano.

The town took on its present-day shape in the late Middle Ages, when the circuit of walls was erected with six gates, five of which can still be seen: Porta San Nicola (above the arch a 17th century fresco shows St. Margaret holding up the village in her left hand), Porta Cencia, Porta San Marco, Porta del Mulino (which gives access to the industrial archeology park, composed of the remains of mills built by the Cantelmo family along the Gizio river) and Porta Santa Margherita.

There are many important buildings within the walls, for the most part the fruit of the demolitions and renovations of pre-15th century buildings done during the late Renaissance-Baroque period.
The 1706 earthquake made new renovations necessary, such as that of the Mother Church, reopened for worship in 1728. Among the religious buildings, worthy of a visit are the small Church of San Nicola outside the walls, already existing in 1112, and the Church of the Madonna della Libera, from which depart the characteristic descending streets (rue) that lead to the river valley passing through interesting architectural stratifications.

The other churches, San Rocco, San Giovanni and Sant’Antonio, retain little of their original structure.

The imposing remains of Cantelmo Castle, today restored, watched over the village during the long period of abandon after the castle no longer served for defense and for controlling trade in the valley. The pentagonal tower that still soars above the Pettorano was the core of the defense system, around which the walls with their six gates and the two remaining circular towers were erected.

The Ducal Palace was the other domain of the Cantelmo, their private residence, divided into three wings around a square court, with the fourth side open to the valley. The inner courtyard (now Piazza Zannelli) has a beautiful fountain.

Lastly, there are the many fine buildings that evoke, also with a sense of abandonment, the period when the village flourished: Palazzo De Stephanis, the façade of which is a triumph of rococo style; Palazzo Croce, which preserves inside the only fragment found in the West of the Edict of Diocletian (301 AD); Palazzo Giuliani, another important building from the 18th century, and Palazzo Vitto-Massei.

Local Products

Until the 1950s, polenta (corn meal mush) was the only dish consumed by all those people of Pettorano who passed long periods away from home digging coal with bill-hooks and axes.

For these humble colliers, polenta, flavored with just a bit of herring, was their breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Local dishes

Polenta rognosa, always cooked in a copper cauldron and cut into slices with a string.

Also typical of the area are mugnoli and cazzarielli, gnocchetti made with flour and water and served with greens.