Casoli - Casoli

Disambiguation - For toponyms of identical name, see Casoli (disambiguation).

Casoli is a city ofAbruzzo.

To know

Geographical notes

The urban center, gathered around the ducal castle and the parish church, is perched on a hill to the right of the Aventino river, at the foot of the Majella.

In the territory are located the Serranella Lake nature reserve, characterized by large swampy areas at the mouth of the Gogna stream, and the Sant'Angelo lake, at the Torre di Prata (called La Torretta), an artificial basin created in 1956 by the dam of the Aventine.

It is 40 km from Chieti, 22 from Taranta Peligna, 23 from They launch, 15 from Guardiagrele.

Background

It was built in the early Middle Ages, probably founded by the inhabitants of the Roman settlement (identified by some archaeologists as Cluviae, center of the Samnite tribe of the Carricini) whose remains are still visible in the locality of Piano Laroma.Some toponyms (Piano la Fara, San Salvatore) and archaeological finds (of the boulders decorated in bas-relief reused to build the bell tower of the main church) testify that in the the Lombards settled in its territory.It is mentioned (as Casule) for the first time by historical sources in 878, in a manuscript listing the possessions of the abbey of Monte Cassino in the Chieti area.At the beginning of the 10th century a community of hermit monks of the Greek-Byzantine rite settled there. Among them the future saints Nicola Greco, Falco, Franco and Ilarione.Fu fief of various families including the Orsini counts of Manoppello, the Colonna and finally the princes of Aquinas of Caramanico.

In 1799 it was hostile to joining the Neapolitan Republic. It was the scene of episodes of insurrection and violence also against the local bourgeoisie without links with the republican authorities and the French occupiers. He joined the Republic without enthusiasm only after the fire of Guardiagrele by the French troops. At the plebiscite of 1860 for the annexation to the Kingdom of Italy, 1,349 of the 1,568 with the right voted: there was only one vote against. From July 1940 to September 1943, Casoli was the site of an internment camp. With its capacity of 80-90 people it was one of the numerous internment camps set up by the fascist government following the entry of Italy into the Second World War to place foreigners and anti-fascists. also along the nearby Sangro river), the group of partisans Brigata Maiella was active. At the institutional referendum of 2 June 1946 there were 3,119 votes for the monarchy and 1,169 for the Republic (the blank ballots were 159 and the null ones 342).

How to orient yourself

Neighborhoods

Its municipal territory also includes the towns of Ascigno, Capoposta, Cappacorti, Caprafico, Cavassutti, Cinonni, Cipollaro, Collebarone, Colle della Torre, Collelungo, Collemarco, Coste Martini, Fiorentini, Grottarimposta, Guarenna Nuova, Guarenna Vecchia, Laroma, Laroscia, Mandramancina, Merosci, Minco di Lici, Monti, Nobili, Piana delle Vacche, Pianibbie, Piano Aventino, Piano Carlino, Piano del Mulino, Piano la Fara, Piano Laroma, Piano Morelli, Piano delle Vigne, Quarto da Capo, Ripitella, Selva Piana , Serra, Taloni, Torretta, Valle Curato, Verratti, Vicenne and Vizzarri.

How to get

By plane

• Pescara airport (Abruzzo International Airport), Via Tiburtina Km 229.100, ☎ 39 085 4324201. 

By bus

• Bus lines managed by ARPA - Abruzzesi regional public bus lines [1]

How to get around

What see

• Ducal castle (Masciantonio Castle). Built around a pentagonal lookout tower dating from the 9th century, it was completed around 1455 by the Orsini; subsequently passed to the principles ofAquino who kept the property until the early nineteenth century; in 1845 it was bought by the Masciantonio family who sold it to the Municipality in 1981. D'Annunzio's room in which the famous poet stayed when he was in Casoli is also famous. 
• Tower of Prata (in Torretta di Casoli). It was probably built around the 11th century. In addition to defending the town of Casoli, it was used to spot birdlife near Lake Casoli. The walls are in limestone, river pebbles and brick. 
• Walls. These are wall-houses with scarp walls, abandoned lookout towers reused as shelters, underpasses and covered passages. * Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Located near the ducal castle, it was built in 1455 by the Orsini princes. Originally it had a single nave; in the second half of the eighteenth century it was enlarged and the choir and the Arch of Purgatory were also added, which connects the church to the castle. The restoration of 1868 gave it its current appearance.

The entrance is served by a flight of stairs. The façade is divided into three parts by two pairs of pilasters placed on a base, which in turn support the entablature in which there is the tympanum. The portal is surmounted by a minor tympanum on which there is a lunette-shaped window. Two other windows are placed in the two lateral bodies. The facade is plastered except in the base part.

The bell tower is made of stone blocks with embedded works; it is quadrangular in shape with overlapping orders.

The interior is a basilica with three naves with side chapels and apse: you can admire works including: one Madonna with Child, San Giacinto and San Biagio by Francesco Maria De Benedictis (1848), San Gilberto by Pasquale Bellonio of Ortona (1797), a Madonna del Carmine, one Madonna of the Rosary (1572) by unknown persons. 

• Church of San Rocco, Piazza San Rocco. It is located in the historic center and dates back to the 17th century. The facade was restored in the nineteenth century in a neoclassical form. The main sector is in Tuscan and Ionic style; niches are located in two minor sectors. The portal is surmounted by a tympanum, as is the facade. The interior is a basilica with a single room. 
• Church of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice. This church built during the twentieth century has a single nave. The entrance is preceded by a portico with an overhanging balcony supported by pillars which is accessed through an ogival arched opening. The bell gable is placed in the central axis. 
• Church of San Francesco. Small building with the facade with a base with blocks of square stone forming an ashlar. The entrance is dominated by a framed tympanum with white metopes and triglyphs placed on a neutral background. 

• Church of Santa Reparata. It was built in 1447. Slightly damaged during the Second World War in the postwar period it was modernized losing the valuable ceiling declared a national monument. It was reopened for worship in 1952. It was formerly dedicated to Santa Liberata and throughout the seventeenth century it continues to be mentioned with this title. Only from the years between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for unclear reasons, did it begin to be called Santa Reparata.

Erected outside the city walls, on a landslide hill overlooking the district of Lame, local tradition attributes the choice of such a disadvantageous area to the will of the saint, whose image appeared on an elm; its construction was also the dissolution of a vow made on the occasion of a plague.

On November 26, 1943 a small aerial bomb fell on the roof of the right aisle of the church, opening a gash in the roof structure: the blast damaged only some of the paintings of the precious coffered ceiling carved and painted in gold and silver, built between the 1603 and 1606 by the Venetian artist Vittorio Buzzacarino, stepson and pupil of Polidoro da Lanciano; the work of inestimable value, painted about eighty years before the wooden ceiling of the central nave of the collegiate church of Santa Maria del Colle in Pescocostanzo, was declared a national monument. Spared from war events, the post-war ceiling was not restored but entirely stolen during the modernization works.

Today the church of Santa Reparata preserves the original typology and proportions: it has a basilica layout, with three naves delimited by pillars. The facade rebuilt in the fifties has a flat termination, in imitation of the most famous monuments of Christian art in Abruzzo (Santa Maria di Collemaggio, San Bernardino all'Aquila). The original carved portal was moved to the side elevation; it also preserves other architectural furnishings dated 1539, such as the triumphal arch that closed the presbytery, the altar of Santa Reparata and those of the holy apostles Philip and James, placed at the end of the side aisles. The statues of the saints are from the 17th century.

Inside it preserves a triptych with Santa Liberata and Angels made in 1506 by Antonio di Francesco di Tommaso da Fossombrone, artist close to the manner of Carlo Crivelli; more recent are the canvases depicting Saint Pius X, made by Mario Barberis, the same who painted the cloth with the image of the pope exhibited during his canonization ceremony (1954), and Mary Help of Christians, who was invoked during the Second World War to spare the country from bombing. 

• Travagliani Palace - De Vincentiis, Temple Square. Opposite the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, the building dates back to the 18th century; it consists of three levels and nine axes. The ground floor is separated from the upper floors by a string course. Entrance is allowed through two stone portals, one of which bears a coat of arms of the owners. The two upper levels are moved by alternating windows and balconies. 
• Tilli Palace, Via Settentrione. The building is isolated, placed close to the walls. The plastered facade is in five axes divided into three levels. The entrance portal is in stone carved with floral motifs. Above the portal there are two balconies, one on each floor. The cornice is multi-row. Inside there is a quadrangular courtyard. 
• Ricci Palace. The building has three axes on the short side and six on the long elevation. For the orography of the place, the secondary side has an extra floor. This side is brick with three arches. The entrance is framed by pilasters and placed between two openings. On the first floor there are windows and balconies, while on the top floor there are only balconies. The balconies are resting on shelves as well as the cornice. 
• Former town hall. Plastered and without decorations, it has architraved windows; those of the first level are wider than those of the upper floors. 
• De Cinque Palace. The central door has a round arch surmounted by a larger balcony than the balcony located on the upper level. The floors are divided by string courses. The central balcony on the second floor is flanked by two other balconies, while the central balcony on the first floor is flanked by two simple windows. 
• Hamlet in the locality of Guarenna Vecchia (it is 5-6 kilometers from the inhabited center). From the structure of the buildings it can be deduced that they were built between the nineteenth and the second half of the twentieth century. The buildings, in rural style, are arranged on a main street and are partly detached, partly joined together. The palaces are built with limestone and pebbles cemented with lime mortar, bordered at the corners by cantonal stones in beveled stone. Most of the buildings end in cornices with two or three rows of tiles. The floors are made with wooden beams. The planking and flooring are made of brick, the roofs with wooden beams. The openings are framed with limestone. 

Areas of environmental concern

• Serranella Lake Controlled Nature Reserve. It is a protected natural area of ​​Abruzzo, established in 1990; has an extension of about 300 hectares divided between the municipalities of Casoli, Altino, is Sant'Eusanio del Sangro, at the confluence of the Sangro and Aventino rivers. The management is entrusted to the municipalities, together with the WWF, and to the Cogecstre Cooperative which collaborates in the management of many Abruzzo reserves.

Flora

The marsh helleborine is an important presence in this reserve, also because it is quite rare in Italy, then we also find the English oak, the black alder, various species of willows and poplars.

Fauna

In the locality of Sant'Eusanio del Sangro, a recovery center for freshwater turtles has been created, where native and other domestic specimens are reproducing, the project is called EMYS Abruzzo.

The fauna is typical of wetlands.

Birdlife is particularly rich. Among the most frequent and particular species we remember the great white heron, the black stork, the flamingo, the marsh harrier, the osprey and the red kite. 

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  Freshwater turtle

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  Great white heron

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  Black stork

• Sant'Angelo lake (Casoli Lake). Lake of artificial origin, born in 1958 from the damming of the Aventino river to power the Acea power plant in Selva d'Altino, over time it has become a site of natural interest, a refuge for aquatic fauna and flora typical of wetlands. 

Events and parties

• Sacred representation of Saint Anthony the Abbot. 15/16/17 January. 
• Our Lady of Sorrows. May 31. 
• Infiorata. in June. It takes place during the Corpus Domini procession. 
• Madonna del Carmine. July 16 and first Sunday in August. 
• San Rocco. August 16. 
• St. Augustine. Last Sunday of August 
• Patronal feta cheese of Santa Reparata. 7/8/9 October. It is celebrated together with Sant'Antonio abate. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the veneration, still respected today, of San Gilberto of Sempringham was also introduced 
• Parade of "Donatives" and "Conocchie". Young people in typical Abruzzo costume parade with the "Conocchie", containers with shelves in the shape of a truncated pyramid on which typical products of the local gastronomy are arranged which are sold to finance the feast of Santa Reparata 

What to do

Shopping

• The extra virgin olive oil has the Protected Designation of Origin DOP "Colline Teatine" with the geographical mention "Frentane". Casoli is part ofNational Association City of oil.

How to have fun

Where to eat

Average prices

• Flamengo restaurant, Contrada Guarenna Vecchia 28, ☎ 39 0872 983181. Monday closed. 
• Agnello D'Oro Restaurant, Via Montaniera 7, ☎ 39 0872 981335. Monday closed. 
• Il Bucaniere Restaurant, Contrada Selva Piana, ☎ 39 0872 982086. closed on Sunday. 
• Trattoria Pizzeria La Lanterna, via Sports field, 31, ☎ 39 0872 981584. closed wednesday. 
• La Taverna sul Lago restaurant, Contrada Torretta 4, ☎ 39 0872 981743. closed wednesday. 
• Miramonti restaurant, Via Quarto Da Capo 14, ☎ 39 0872 981115. Monday closed. 
• Trattoria Lu Pennese, Via Piano Aventino 2, ☎ 39 0872 981387. closed on Sunday. 
• Aventino Bar Restaurant, Contrada Cipollaro, 3, ☎ 39 0872 993268. closed on Sunday. 
• Pizzeria Rosticceria Le Tre Spade, Corso Umberto I, 26, ☎ 39 0872 981838. Monday closed. 
• Lu Mulin Pizzeria, Contrada Selva Piana, 6, ☎ 39 0872 982484. Monday closed. 

Where stay

Average prices

• Travaglini farmhouse, Contrada Piano delle Vigne, 65, ☎ 39 0872 982565. 
• Agriturismo Carlino, locality Piano Carlino, 31, ☎ 39 0872 982106. 
• Agriturismo de Camillis, Contrada Piano delle Vigne, ☎ 39 0872 982222. 

Safety

• Carabinieri, Via del Campo Sportivo, 4, ☎ 39 0872 981122. 
• Fire fighters, Contrada Piano Aventino, ☎ 39 0872 981165. 
• Traffic wardens, Via Frentana, ☎ 39 0872 99281. 
• Emergency room, Via G. Consalvi, ☎ 39 0872989218. 
• Civil Protection Service "E. Rossetti", Corso Umberto I. 39 0872 993312. 

Pharmacies

• Seraphim, Via Montaniera, 44 / A, ☎ 39 0872 981202. 
• Tilli, Piazza San Rocco, 6, ☎ 39 0872 981192. 

How to keep in touch

Post office

• Italian post, Piazza del Popolo 1, ☎ 39 0872 993110, fax: 39 0872 981574. 

Around

• Guardiagrele - It has an important historical center, with churches and buildings of great interest. It is famous for craftsmanship in metalworking. It is part of the most beautiful villages in Italy.
• Roccascalegna - Its castle, located on the top of a rocky ledge like an eagle's nest, dominates the town; the small village, made up of a few low houses, develops at the foot of the fortress.
• Taranta Peligna - It preserves ancient churches and has areas of naturalistic interest such as the Cavallone cave, the Canosa Cave, the Acquevive, the Taranta Valley.

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Casoli
• Commons contains images or other files on Casoli

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