Guardiagrele - Guardiagrele

Guardiagrele is a city ofAbruzzo.

To know

Famous for its handicraft productions, in particular in metalworking, as well as being the birthplace of the goldsmith, engraver and painter Nicola da Guardiagrele, it hosts the Abruzzese Artistic Handicraft Exhibition every year from 1st to 20th August. It was the first place, along with Agnone, where the production of the presentosa, a female Abruzzo jewel generally in gold, worn on festive occasions.Guardiagrele is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

Geographical notes

Located inAbruzzo Apennines near the Maielletta, it is 28 km from Chieti, 39 from Pescara, 28 from Ortona, 25 from Manoppello, 23 from They launch, 10 from Fara Filiorum Petri, 9 from Orsogna.

Background

The territory of Guardiagrele was inhabited since the protohistoric age, as evidenced by some archaeological finds. It was then inhabited by the Italics and the Romans. The establishment of a Lombard military fortification, for control purposes, would be at the origin of the legend that tells of the abandonment of the village of Grele and the "guarding" of the old town. In truth there are no concrete testimonies even for the Lombard period, with the exception of the diminutive, present in the historic center, "faricciola", a term that derives from the existence of Lombard settlements called "fare". The first documents that appear date back to the second mid-11th century and consist of a bull of Pope Alexander II, in which a villa is mentioned quae vocatur Grele, cum ecclesiis et omnibus pertinis suis among the possessions of the monastery of San Salvatore in Maiella.

In 1391 Ladislao di Durazzo granted the city permission to mint coins, as a thank you for the support shown to the king. In fact, in 1420 the city endowed itself with autonomous municipal statutes - important documents to which the current municipal administration does not allow access to scholars - starting a long period of struggles against the numerous attempts of reconquest by the old masters. In 1495, the city was given a fief to Pardo Orsini who reactivated the mint, coining a horse in his name. The following centuries were for the Abruzzo city a period of demographic, economic and cultural decline, also due to the numerous natural disasters that affected it. Among these was the plague epidemic of 1566 and 1656, periodic famines and the disastrous earthquake of 1706.

In 1799 Guardiagrele was besieged and sacked by the French troops of General Coutard, which caused the death of 328 guardians. The discontent caused by the new forms of agricultural organization introduced after the unification of Italy favored the phenomenon of banditry, which saw in the guardian Domenico Di Sciascio one of the best known exponents, he being head of the Band of the Maiella. Another phenomenon caused by this malaise was emigration, especially towards theAmerica and theAustralia.

The Second World War left a heavy legacy in the city, especially in the artistic and architectural heritage. With the German occupation of October 1943, the population was forced to flee and take refuge outside the city, while Guardiagrele suffered heavy bombardments from the allied front, until its liberation in June 1944. After the reconstruction and emigration of the 1950s, it had a lively economic recovery took place, fueled by the enhancement of craft activities and private initiative, which favored small businesses.

How to orient yourself

Neighborhoods

Its municipal territory also includes the villages of Anello, Bocca di Valle, Caporosso, Caprafico, Cerchiara, Colle Barone, Colle Luna, Colle Spedale, Comino, Melone, Piana San Bartolomeo, Piano delle Fonti, San Biase, San Domenico, Colle Bianco , San Leonardo, Santa Lucia, Sciorilli, Tiballo, Villa San Vincenzo and Voire.

How to get

By plane

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

By car

• Motorway toll booths on the A14 Adriatica a Chieti, Ortona is They launch

Several arteries converge on Guardiagrele; the main ones are:

• State road 81 Piceno - aprutina
• former state road 363 of Guardiagrele
• former state road 538 Marrucina

On the train

• Railway stations a Chieti Stop, Pescara Central, San Vito Chietino-They launch is Ortona.

By bus

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

How to get around

What see

• Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (Duomo). It has a complex structure, the result of the succession of construction phases over the centuries. It is characterized by an elegant façade in Maiella stone in which a massive bell tower is incorporated that dominates the façade.

Local tradition traces the construction of the church back to 430, on the remains of an ancient pagan temple. Current studies attribute the origin to a 13th century cemetery church, located outside the walls of the castrum. The two dates '1133' and '1150', once engraved on the facade, probably refer to the first construction phase. In 1256 the cemetery was moved to the vicinity of the church of San Siro, the current church of San Francesco d'Assisi, as the hub of city life and its main activities was moving to Santa Maria Maggiore. In the two centuries following the relocation of the cemetery, the church was embellished and enriched with works of art.

In the fourteenth century the main changes were made to the building such as the construction of the bell tower and the northern portico. In the following century other important architectural and furnishing elements were added or renewed such as the main pointed arch portal, the single lancet windows of the facade, the frescoes under the arcades and the processional cross by Nicola da Guardiagrele (which was then sacked but partly recovered and exhibited in the cathedral museum). On the top of the tower there are traces that refer to an octagonal belfry, demolished by the seismic events that followed one another over time.

Of the original building, only the elevation under the southern portico survives, albeit with various additions, such as the second portal. Inserted in 1578, the latter was probably obtained from a block that originally must have been an altar and is characterized by rich braid decorations, grotesques and floral motifs. Not contemporary with the original construction on the southern side is also the gigantic fresco of 1473 depicting San Cristoforo, made by Andrea De Litio (the only work signed and dated by the artist), which shows the saint in the act of crossing a crowded stream of fish holding the baby Jesus on their shoulders, who in turn raises a globe on which the letters AAE (initials of the three known continents at the time) are written. The portico was extended in 1882 beyond via dei Cavalieri, so as to cover the coats of arms of the most important Guardian families posted on the wall.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, having to expand the church but also facing the need not to obstruct Via dei Cavalieri, it was decided to resort to the raising of the entire hall, extending it to the church of the Madonna del Riparo, located on the opposite side of the road. A large and bright interior with a single nave was obtained, which could be accessed via a wide staircase, while Santa Maria del Riparo became a closed evacuation room. The new church of Santa Maria Maggiore was restored in the twentieth century, with the replacement of the roof in favor of a trussed roof.

The Majella stone façade is dominated by a portal that well represents the Abruzzo Gothic, with its rich workmanship in bundles of columns and capitals with floral motifs and a strongly splayed concentric arched archivolt. Its wooden doors are dated 1686, while the lunette housed a 15th-century sculptural group on the Coronation of the Virgin, now exhibited in the cathedral museum. Under the clock, a shrine houses a statue of St. John the Baptist, attributable to the second half of the fifteenth century.

The northern portico, towards Palazzo Vitacolonna, is covered by a ceiling with cross vaults supported by massive pillars and stone columns and houses the fifteenth-century fresco of the Madonna del Latte, whose author is unknown, under a span covered with rich Baroque stucco decorations.

In the internal environment the walls are marked by pilasters alternating with stucco altars, inside which there are statues or paintings. On the left side particularly relevant are the Deposition, a seventeenth-century canvas by the Ferrarese painter Giuseppe Lamberti, and the walnut pulpit on which scenes from the Life of Jesus. On the opposite side there is a medieval frontal reassembled with heterogeneous stone elements, inside which a composition of tiles is placed, surmounted by a late sixteenth century canvas representing theAssumption of Mary. One is kept in the sacristy Crucifixion by Francesco Maria De Benedictis, le Souls in purgatory by Nicola Ranieri and four episodes of the Life of Christ, all works by Guardia artists and dating back to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

• Church of San Francesco (Sanctuary of San Nicola Greco), piazza San Francesco. The church of San Francesco, known as Sanctuary of San Nicola Greco, was part of a convent complex that currently houses the town hall. Its history began in 1276, when the countess Tommasa di Palearia allowed the Franciscans to move near the town, occupying the premises of the ancient church of San Siro, which the friars named after the Saint of Assisi.

Thanks to the help of the Orsini family, who replaced the Palearia in the control of Guardiagrele, the importance of the convent increased rapidly, especially in the urban environment. In fact, around 1340 Napoleon I Orsini donated the relics of San Nicola Greco to the convent, while his nephew, Napoleon II, enriched and embellished the building, giving orders to be buried in the chapel of San Leone. The latter was still existing around the middle of the seventeenth century, on the right side of the temple, decorated with frescoes and with an altar "all in porphyry", but it was demolished in the eighteenth century during renovations.

The surviving parts of the ancient fourteenth-century building consist mainly of the facade and the lower part of the right side, up to the string course. Subsequent interventions include the replacement of the oculus with a rectangular window in the facade and the closure of the single-light windows and the portal on the right side, with the aim of expanding, enriching and articulating the baroque workings inside. The articulated main entrance portal, attributed to the fourteenth-century school of Nicola Mancino, is characterized by lively decorations in the archivolt, in the jambs with bundles of columns that alternate between smooth, herringbone and twisted leaves and in the capitals with curved foliage . The portal, coming from the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, was transferred to San Francesco in 1884; it is the work of local workers.

The interior of the temple has a typically Baroque style, with sumptuous elements that enhance the spaces. Next to the walls adjacent to the entrance there are two carved wooden confessionals, dating back to the eighteenth century. In the counter-façade there is a long Latin inscription which recalls the historical events that have affected the church, placed under the Franciscan coat of arms.

Along the side walls alternate pilasters and pilasters, among which there are minor altars in stucco, with paintings and wooden statues, such as the 1604 canvas depicting a Madonna and Child with Saints, commissioned by the noble family De Sorte and a Annunciation, in which appears the coat of arms of the Farina family, of late sixteenth century origin, both placed on the left wall. On the opposite side there are the canvases of the Virgin and Saint Lucia and a gilded and painted wood sculpture depicting Saint Anthony of Padua with angels.

The hall is divided from the choir by a stucco masonry structure, in front of which is the high altar in red Verona marble decorated with a series of white trilobate pointed arches resting on twisted columns. The latter could be the all porphyry altar belonging to the ancient chapel of San Leone, even if this hypothesis is not supported by decisive elements.

In a glass case beyond the partition are the relics of San Nicola Greco, who leave the church every 25 years on the occasion of a solemn procession through the streets of the city. Other valuable elements of the temple are the twelve choir stalls, made of carved wood, with geometrically decorated backs, spaced by plant shoots and ending with heads and surmounted by busts of Sibyls and the statue of King David. 

• Church of San Nicola di Bari, via Roma. The church was built in the 4th century on the remains of an ancient pagan temple dedicated to Jupiter. It is probably the oldest church founded in the city, being located within the walls of the primitive Castrense settlement. It was the subject of several renovations until it assumed the current Baroque forms. Following the earthquake of 1706 it was rebuilt. It was again restored and decorated in 1972 as an inscription on the ceiling of the church recalls.

The exterior is made of irregular stone masonry, with the facade plastered. On the right side, the closure of the original single lancet windows and the eighteenth-century superelevation are evident.

The massive square bell tower is the only element to have maintained its original appearance, with the exception of the top cell. It is built in irregular stones but with square stone corners. It has two small single lancet windows, one of which has a pointed arch.

The church has two portals, one larger and decorated on the facade and one on the side. The main portal has a typical sixteenth-century invoice, with Corinthian half-columns on high bases and jambs, decorated with braids and plant motifs. On the sides there are two column-bearing lions, perhaps the only surviving element of the ancient portal.

The side one has more modest dimensions but richer and more refined decorations, with vine shoots, bunches and other vegetable elements.

The interior with a single nave is presented in the forms that were given to it in the eighteenth century with side altars, stuccos, medallions, capitals and friezes that decorate the walls, the apsidal basin and the vault. On the walls there are pilasters with Corinthian capitals and gilded finishes that support a high entablature. The apse has two niches on the sides surmounted by two small balconies. In the left niche there is a statue of San Nicola di Bari. The main altar is composed of two pairs of columns with Corinthian capitals on which rests a semicircular tympanum with angels and cherubs. The tabernacle is supported by an angel. The entrance is dominated by a choir loft on which the organ is located. There are preserved several paintings made by Guardia artists between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries such as the Madonna with San Donato and San Nicola di Bari on the main altar, the work of Nicola Ranieri; in the side altars Saint Francis Xavier and the Crucifixion, also by Ranieri, St. Nicholas of Tolentino by Francesco Maria De Benedictis and the Holy Family by Ferdinando Palmerio. There are also two paintings by the contemporary Guardian artists Luciano Primavera and Giuseppe Ranieri. 

• Church of San Silvestro. According to tradition, the first Romanesque church was built on a pagan temple dedicated to Diana. Like the church of San Nicola di Bari, San Silvestro was also located within the first urban expansion that extended from the castrum to Porta San Giacomo on the western side of the promontory, to Porta Di Luzio on the eastern side.

Inside, round arches set on pillars outline the three naves, which have a room on the right which can be accessed directly from the church. The different elevations of the building show different construction materials: regular and squared stones in the facade, bricks in the lateral side and stones mixed with bricks in the rear side, due to the different construction phases. The façade allows a glimpse of the curtain wall only on the left side, being largely plastered. The late Renaissance portal is decorated with a pair of cornucopias and a coat of arms, not originating from the church, positioned on the architrave resting in turn on corbels set on columns. There is also a side portal, made up of jambs and a simple architrave surmounted by a protruding cornice that supports an abraded coat of arms. At the upper corners of the entrance there are two shelves with floral decorations. According to some sources, the inscription placed on the table to the left of the portal reported the date of a reconstructive intervention carried out in 1428. This would also explain the different curtain walls of the various sectors of the building. the brick reconstruction of the side and rear walls of the minor naves seem to date back to the 16th century. Following the restoration of the mid-twentieth century, which eliminated the baroque elements and consolidated the now decadent structure, the church of San Silvestro, no longer consecrated, hosts exhibitions, conferences and concerts. 

• Convent of the Capuchins. It was founded in the suburban chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo in 1599. Behind the small three-arched portico there is the seventeenth-century access portal to the church, surmounted by a triangular tympanum. The interior, with a single nave, has chapels only on the right side, with wooden altars and statues of saints. The central wooden altar, with a tripartite structure, has a characteristic broken tympanum and four canvases inserted in the structure, including the central Immaculate between angels and saints, whose author is unknown, dating back to the seventeenth century like the whole complex. It is fronted by a tabernacle inlaid in wood and ivory, with two rows of twisted columns, ending with an onion dome, the work of the early eighteenth century by the "marangoni", famous Capuchin carvers. The furniture of the church is completed by a simple pulpit and some paintings by Nicola Ranieri.

The small cloister is bordered by arches on pillars and has a polygonal well in Maiella stone in the center. 

• Church of San Rocco. It is an integral part of the collegiate church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Born following the eighteenth-century raising of Santa Maria Maggiore, it is divided into three naves separated by five round arches resting on massive square pillars. It is enriched with Baroque decorations in polychrome stucco. :: The furniture consists of a confessional and an onion pulpit by the cabinetmaker Modesto Salvini from Orsognan and some paintings by Nicola Ranieri, including the medallion of the Madonna del Latte, at the end of the central nave. On the counter-façade there are two Gothic stone arches, decorated with spirally worked stems with oak and hop twigs, delimited by capitals on which the pointed arches are set, embellished in turn with rampant leaves and ending with the image of the Redeemer and of the Veronica di Cristo, whose manufacture makes them believed to be made by artists of the early fifteenth century. 
• Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, via Modesto della Porta. The current appearance of the building is the result of the radical renovations carried out at the beginning of the twentieth century, which concerned the remains of the ancient Celestinian convent. It does not appear to have been affected by the new twentieth-century trends, except for the elements of liberty style in the decorations of the facade and the façade in via Modesto Della Porta.

Inside there is a cycle of paintings by Fernando Palmerio, the Stories of the Virgin of Sorrows and San Celestino, on the sides and on the ceiling of the nave, as well as on the dome and on the sides of the central aedicule of the presbytery. 

• Church of Santa Chiara. Originally it was annexed to a convent of the Poor Clares, founded according to tradition in 1220. The ruins of this building were visible until the thirties. Over the centuries it has undergone numerous interventions, up to the present baroque aspect.

The façade is not distinguished by particular elements, with the exception of the portal of 1927.: The interior, with a single nave, has rich eighteenth-century stucco decorations. In addition to the main altar there are two side altars, a carved pulpit and a crucifix, both in wood, attributable to the period of the late Baroque renovation. The paintings on the walls, such as the Nativity by Nicola Ranieri and the Pity by Donato Teodoro, also author of the painting on the vault depicting the Fall of the Rebel Angels. 

• Church of San Donato. Dedicated to the patron saint of the city. It rises outside the inhabited center. 

• Porta San Giovanni. Originally known as Porta della Fiera, it was rebuilt in 1841 in its present form. The structure, articulated around a round arch, has a regular stone facing only on the external facade. On the top there is a pediment with a coat of arms and an inscription that commemorates the inauguration date of the street 
• Porta San Pietro. The structure, flanked by a tower and a portal, consists of the remains of the convent of San Pietro Celestino. The ogival door, stone and with a lowered brick arch, leads to a courtyard where another door is located which leads to an external environment in which sections of surviving walls are visible and where the ashlars of two other arches, now disappeared, can be seen. . 
• Door of the Wind (Gate of Grele), Largo Garibaldi. Under the church of the Madonna del Rosario, it assumed its current appearance after the renovations after the year 1000, losing its ancient Lombard appearance. It consists of a round arch in square stone ashlars that delimit a brick barrel vault, which is set on a stone masonry. Over the centuries, various buildings have leaned against the door, hiding it almost entirely. 

• Orsini tower. Emblem of the city, it is located in a dense pine forest adjacent to Largo Garibaldi, known as the Piano. The name of the structure is due to the family that ruled Guardiagrele, together with the County of Manoppello, from 1340. According to local traditions and toponymy, the tower, also called Longobard, was the seat of the fortified garrison built in the seventh century, but there are no elements in the structure that lead back to that period. Its squat and imposing appearance is the result of numerous modifications that in the centuries following the construction affected almost all the Lombard fortifications. Its current appearance, massive and with a square plan, is due to the Orsini family, owners of the city since the 14th century. Characteristic of this building is the crumbling top. 
• Adriana Tower. Located at the northern corner of the city walls, near the artisan shops, it has a cylindrical shape and a regular stone wall of small cut. 
• Stella Tower. Twin of the Adriana Tower, it is together with it the only circular perimeter tower that has survived to the present day. The elevation is altered by the construction of two balconies. In the masonry there is the noble coat of arms of the Stella family. 
• San Pietro Tower, Modesto Della Port Street. Adjacent to the door of the same name, it appears to be the lower part of the bell tower of the Celestinian monastery of San Pietro confessore. With a square base, the tower has a single lancet window and an inscription on the outside. At its base there is a late Gothic portal, rather deteriorated. On the facade there is an epigraph that bears the date 1438, when the monastic complex was renovated by a certain Frater Angelus Miscei de Guardia Grelis. 
• Gastaldo tower, via San Francesco. According to tradition it was the residence of the Lombard steward. The building, with a square plan, does not seem to date back to a period so distant as to confirm the tradition and has never been part of the walls. It appears to be more of a medieval fortified tower house. The wall face is made up of squared stone ashlars at the corners, stones mixed with bricks in the rest of the structure. The third and fourth levels of the building are delimited by a string course with wolf teeth. 
• Aqueduct tower. The aqueduct tower is a modern structure rebuilt after the older one was blown up by the Germans during the Second World War 

• Marini house. ancient seat of the mint where since 1391 the bolognini. Established by Napoleon II Orsini, the mint was a privilege granted by King Ladislao of Durres with a special diploma in June 1391.

The building has undergone numerous alterations and transformations over time, but retains a late Gothic ogival portal that adorns the façade, surmounted by a triangular tympanum. Beyond the entrance there is a small internal courtyard. 

• Vitacolonna Palace, piazza Santa Maria Maggiore. Main civil city building. It dates back to the 18th century and was built following the dictates of Renaissance architecture. The main façade is divided into three levels: from the shops and shops of the first, to the second dominated by simple windows to culminate on the main floor on the third level. The top of the façade is characterized by a projecting cornice under which runs a row of circular tiles. On the main floor all the openings, surmounted by curvilinear and triangular gables in alternation, overlook a long balcony supported by shelves.

Beyond the entrance opens a room from the floor in opus spicatum and river pebbles, in which there is a flight of stairs with rampant vaults built following the canons of the eighteenth-century Neapolitan Baroque. In one of the internal rooms it is possible to admire a vault bearing the fresco Leda and the Swan, attributable to the local artist Francesco Maria De Benedictis. 

• Elisii Palace, via Tripio. Baroque in taste. The main façade of the building is made of mixed stones and bricks, characterized by large windows with baroque frames on shelves along the entire main floor and by a rusticated portal. Beyond the entrance, through a corridor with a barrel vault, you reach a courtyard in which a second portal opens. The latter bears a coat of arms on the keystone. 
• De Lucia Palace, via Roma. Dating back to the 18th century, the period of rise of numerous bourgeois families in the city, its façade is characterized by an elegant portal surmounted by two male busts. On the first floor windows with an arched tympanum alternate with openings with a triangular tympanum, some of which overlook a balcony with wrought iron railing resting on eighteenth-century style shelves. A monumental stone and brick staircase, with rampant vaults on columns and pillars, leads to the main floor, where there is a large hall with an elliptical vault. 
• Liberatoscioli Palace. Among the few examples of Art Nouveau in Guardiagrele. Built around the 1920s, it consists of a parallelepiped block on a polygonal base which is divided into three levels and five bays in the main facade. The main portal is clad in ashlar stone and is aligned both with a curved molding window on the first floor and with a circular window divided into three parts on the second floor. The tall windows have moldings with coping, some openings in which there are no decorations, and balconies with wrought iron balustrades bearing floral motifs.

In the central span at the level of the cornice there is a bas-relief depicting an eagle with spread wings on a branch, about to take flight. On the entrance door there is an oval coat of arms with small scrolls, bearing a sword inside which is intertwined with the letter P. 

• Montanari-Spoltore Palace, via Tripio. The Lancianese painter Federico Spoltore stayed there for a long time and decorated the building with tempera and canvases. 
• Iannucci Palace, via della Penna. Valuable example of seventeenth-century civil architecture; its façade in mixed stone is enriched by a round portal and simple rectangular windows. 
• Marrucina Fountain. Composed of three brick archways divided by stone pilasters. It can be traced back to the 18th century. 
• Grele Fountain. Reduced to the state of ruin, it dates back to the 17th century. 

Museums

• Costume and tradition museum, in the cloister of San Francesco. It collects objects and documents that recall the daily life of the inhabitants of the area between the 19th and 20th centuries. The Museum is housed in the ground floor rooms of the cloister of San Francesco and was born thanks to volunteer work.

Inside are reconstructed environments of domestic and artisan life. For example, a kitchen has been rebuilt, with authentic 19th century utensils, where a women's space for spinning and weaving has also been set up, where it is possible to observe ancient tools of the time.

There are also spaces dedicated to the artisan activity, flourishing in Guardiagrele, with the exhibition of the tools of the ancient artisans, and a section dedicated to women's clothes and jewels. 

• Cathedral Museum. It is set up in the three rooms of the medieval crypt and collects the most important pieces from the cathedral that survived the earthquake of 1703; it was established in 1988 after the restoration of the crypt. The works exhibited here range from the 14th century to the 1700s and come not only from the Duomo, but also from other city churches. 
• Archaeological Museum, piazza San Francesco. It houses weapons, pottery and ornaments, dating back to the period between the end of the 10th and the 3rd century BC, found in the protohistoric necropolis of Comino. : Inaugurated in August 1999, it is located on the ground floor of the municipal building. It consists of five rooms in which about sixty funeral objects found in tumulus tombs dating back to the early Iron Age are exhibited.

There are also two showcases in the museum that show the research activity conducted in the necropolis by don Filippo Ferrari, parish priest of Guardiagrele at the beginning of the last century who deserves credit for having understood the importance of the archaeological site, even if the material collected by him went missing during the Second World War. 

• Museum of Abruzzo's artistic craftsmanship. Wrought iron, copper, ceramics, wood, carved stone, glass, bobbin lace work and embroidery are all manufacturing activities whose works are collected in the museum which aims to enhance the craftsmanship of the city. The same aim is pursued by the Exhibition of Abruzzo's artistic craftsmanship held every year in Guardiagrele. 

Events and parties

The patron saints of the city are San Donato d'Arezzo and Sant 'Emidio and are celebrated together with the patron San Nicola Greco on 6, 7 and 8 August, with markets, bingo and processions in which the saints are paraded.

• Mostra dell'Artigianato Artistico Abruzzese. 1-20 agosto. 
• Guardiagrele Opera Festival (GO Festival), Piazza San Francesco-Largo Nicola da Guardiagrele, @[email protected]. Seconda metà di luglio. Festival di Opera Lirica, Musica e Cultura, dal 2015 porta a Guardiagrele artisti da tutto il mondo. Opera Studio e Masterclass, eventi, concerti e opere liriche nelle piazze e nelle chiese del borgo. 

What to do

Shopping

La lavorazione del ferro battuto, originariamente nata per rispondere a esigenze concrete, è attualmente ampiamente praticata in forma artistica. Non meno antica della lavorazione del ferro battuto è quella del rame, i cui pezzi trovano esposizione presso Porta San Giovanni. Nel tempo sono stati sviluppati dai ramai dei gerghi di mestiere esclusivamente guardiesi, unico caso nella regione Abruzzo, che dimostra il radicamento nel borgo di tale attività. Oggi questa forma di artigianato è in forte declino, sostituita dalla lavorazione industriale. Il tipico motivo decorativo consiste nella linea greca romana, una linea spezzata ininterrotta, costituita da segmenti perpendicolari e paralleli ad alternanza. Essa è ottenuta battendo col martello il manufatto posto su un supporto, il palanchino.

How to have fun

Where to eat

Prezzi medi

• Villa Maiella, Via Sette Dolori 30, ☎ 39 0818 901266, fax: 39 0818 901266. 
• Ristorante La Grotta dei Raselli, via Raselli 146, ☎ 39 3478 694693, fax: 39 0871 808292. 
• Ristorante Parco Della Majella, Via Colle Luna 2, ☎ 39 0871 83354, fax: 39 087183354. 
• Ristorante Santa Chiara, Via Roma 10, ☎ 39 3403 727457, fax: 39 0871 801702. 
• Agriturismo La Tana del Lupo, Via Bocca di Valle 140, ☎ 39 0871 808010, fax: 39 0871 800071. 
• Agriturismo Casino di Caprafico (Frazione Caprafico Piane), ☎ 39 0871897492, fax: 39 0871 897492. 

Where stay

Prezzi medi

• Hotel Bocca di Valle, Via Bocca di Valle 66, ☎ 39 0871 808002, fax: 39 0871 808018, @[email protected]. 
• Hotel Granada, Via Colle Granaro 78, ☎ 39 0871 82552. 
• Hotel Pater Montium (Frazione Bocca di Valle), ☎ 39 0871 808153. 

Safety

Pharmacies

• Comunale Anxanum 3, Via Sciusciardo 127 (in località Villa S. Vincenzo), ☎ 39 0871 893019. 
• Cristini, Via Tripio, 162, ☎ 39 0871 82328. 
• La Barba, via Roma 123, ☎ 39 0871 82226. 
• Simeoni, Via Roma, 17. 

How to keep in touch

Poste

• Italian post, via San Francesco 69, ☎ 39 0871 80893, fax: 39 0871 335313. 

Around

• Casoli - 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.
• They launch - City of ancient tradition, it was the capital of the Frentani and then a Roman municipality. It has an ancient nucleus of great interest, which comes alive on the occasion of the numerous historical re-enactments; famous are the Medieval Week with the '' Mastrogiurato '' and the sacred representations of Holy Week. It is a destination for pilgrimages following his Eucharistic miracle
• Manoppello
• Ortona - The ancient monumental inhabited area stretches out on a promontory of the coast; fishing and bathing activities develop on the coast. It is a city linked to important events of the Second World War.

Other projects

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

Usable : the article respects the characteristics of a draft but in addition it contains enough information to allow a short visit to the city. Use i correctly listing (the right type in the right sections).