Nereto - Nereto

Nereto is a center ofAbruzzo.

To know

Geographical notes

It is almost barycentric in the Val Vibrata, valley of the Abruzzo teramano that stretches from Civitella del Tronto to the Adriatic coast. It is equidistant from Teramo is Ascoli Piceno, from which 30 km separate it.

Background

The Vico Galliano from Roman times it stood in an area already inhabited in prehistoric times and then by peoples originating from Greece, and was corresponding to the current San Martino district. With the barbarian invasions the center was destroyed and its inhabitants moved to an area further north; the town took the name of Nereti farmhouse. The Benedictine monks arrived in the area after the year 1000 and built a church of San Martino on the site of the ancient Vico Galliano.

The territory of Nereto had until then been aggregated to the Piceno; the Normans united it to the Kingdom of Naples; the border of the Kingdom was identified in the Tronto river. Having become a frontier territory, Nereto changed its nature of farmhouse and became a fortified center turning into Castrum Nereti. He sided with the Pope during the conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines. In 1279 it was given as a fief to Amelio de Agoto Courban, former lord of Colonnella.

In 1383 it was sold to the Municipality of Ascoli. Under this domination Nereto enjoyed a good autonomy and participation in the government of the community; it had a period of stability and population growth. His return under the Kingdom of Naples cannot be dated to a precise date, but it nevertheless took place at the end of the seventeenth century. With the Unification, the inhabited center expanded and took on the late nineteenth-century appearance that still distinguishes it today, alongside more modern areas. The old castle was demolished after the last war, and almost nothing remains of the ancient medieval center.

The legend

Popular tradition tells that Hannibal, who arrived in Nereto during his march along the peninsula, found a large quantity of good wine, so much so that he was able to refresh the troops and wash his horses with it to clean them from diseases contracted in the marshes of the Trasimeno.

How to orient yourself

Neighborhoods

Other towns in the Nereto area are Capo di Valle, Certosa, Parignano, Pignotto, Rote, San Martino, San Savino, Vibrata.

How to get

By plane

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

By car

• Tollbooth on the Adriatica motorway, exit Val Vibrata; from the toll booth, take the former Val Vibrata state road , now provincial 259, which crosses the whole valley from Civitella del Tronto to Alba Adriatica.

On the train

Station on the Adriatic route: Alba Adriatica-Nereto-Controguerra

By bus

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

How to get around

What see

• Church of San Martino. It is undoubtedly the most valuable monument of Nereto. It was probably built where a Roman building already existed. Of particular interest are the capitals of the columns that delimit the central nave. In the first half of the twelfth century the Benedictines gave their mark to the sacred building that served the ancient Borgo Galliano which developed around the monastery. With the consolidation of the inhabited area in the highest area, the church became rural; in fact, the parish registers define it, in more recent times, extra moenia.

In a bull of Pope Clement III it is listed among the dependencies of the Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò a Tordino. The interior has a basilica plan; the central nave is much wider than the lateral ones, and is delimited by cylindrical travertine columns with valuable capitals of pluriform styles. The pediment is in travertine; the façade ends in a horizontal line, a characteristic that finds an infinite number of applications in the churches of Abruzzo and that characterizes the religious architecture of the region a little. The door and the two side windows are round arched. Large windows give light to the central nave. On the choir, in a niche, you can see the image of the Madonna of Purity which is celebrated on the third Sunday of October and was called in the past Madonna of Galliano. A report of 1610 written on the occasion of a pastoral visit informs us that the interior walls were frescoed with numerous images of Christ, the Madonna and various saints, of which no trace remains by now.

The titular saint of the church was once present with a silver bust, which was later transferred to Maria Santissima della Consolazione when that church, more central in the new town, became a parish church. The Saint is however present on the entrance portal, carved in travertine; it is probably a recovery from the ancient church that existed before the restoration carried out by the Benedictines in the fifteenth century. Adjacent to the church there are remains of Roman houses which testify to the antiquity of the settlement which probably was not isolated, but constituted a town.

The church of San Martino, with that of Torano, formed the Diocese Nullius of S.Attone, subject to the abbots of the monastery of S.Atto; together with the latter in 1477 they passed to the Aprutino Chapter.

San Martino was also for a long time, and until 1886, a cemetery chapel. In the early decades of the twentieth century on the site of the old cemetery, abandoned since 1886 when the new Camposanto was built, the white marble statue representing the Madonna of Fatima was erected. The last restoration is from the 19th century; for example, the facade and the rose window are due to it. 

• Parish Church of Maria Santissima della Consolazione. Probably founded in the fifteenth century, it houses a fifteenth-century terracotta statue depicting the Madonna della Consolazione, which would be contemporary with the construction of the church, and the silver bust of San Martino, patron saint of Nereto, transferred here from the ancient church of San Martino when Maria Santissima della Consolazione became a parish church for the convenience of the inhabitants.

Among the various renovations undergone by the building, it is worth mentioning that carried out between 1850 and 1865, with the extension of the church and the incorporation of a small chapel dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua, by Ius Patronatus of the Tonelli family. The frescoes inside are nineteenth-century works. With three naves, with a bright interior, the church appears today in its characters that can be written in the late Baroque with even later connotations. 

• Church of San Rocco. It was built around 1527, the year in which there was a plague epidemic, and in fact it was dedicated to San Rocco. It has an octagonal plant and is small in size; it rises at the beginning of via Matteotti and was formerly outside the city walls, just to underline its character as a bulwark against pestilence. Furthermore, in times of epidemics, the sick were not in contact with the population. The church is now deconsecrated and is in a state of serious decay. 
• Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio. It was built in 1676, but it has the appearance given to it by the renovation carried out in the nineteenth century. It overlooks the main square, and is characterized by the presence of two facades finished with a tympanum and pilasters; the portal of the square has a stone frame. It has some paintings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of modest relief and an ancient wooden crucifix. The bell tower stands alongside the rear wall. 
• Church of Maria Santissima Addolorata. Built with the offerings of the faithful in the mid-eighteenth century, it was the seat of Confraternities. It has a gable roof, decorative pilasters on the facade and simple architectural lines. The high bell tower ends with a spire, while on the top of the façade tympanum there is a statue of the Madonna; above the presbytery there is a dome which ends with a lantern. Restored in 2000, it suffered damage from the earthquake of April 6, 2009 and is therefore closed. 

Events and parties

• Ruzzola Tournament Cheese launch Rubies Trophy. First Sunday of May. 
• Festival of broad beans. With tasting of bread sprinkled with oil and wine from the Vibrata hills, on the second Sunday of May. 
• Show exchange of vintage radios and telecommunications equipment. Third Sunday of May. 
• Cherry Fair. First Sunday of June. 
• Neretese summer. Event that lasts throughout the month in July and August, with a minimum of 45 events (dialect theater, bands, majorettes, concerts, operettas, etc.). 
• Settembrata Neretese. In September, with tasting of the traditional dish of the neretese goat. 
• Torchlight procession of solidarity. November 10. 
• Patronal feast of San Martino. 11 November. 
• Re-enactment of the Miracle of Our Lady of Consolation. December 22. 

What to do

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

The Abruzzo Region declared traditional Abruzzo dishes two culinary specialties of Nereto: the neretese turkey and the neretese goat.

• Pizzorante Zio Mamo - pizza restaurant, viale garibaldi 10, ☎ 39 086182275. 

Where stay

Moderate prices

• Hotel Europa, Viale Europa, @[email protected]. -->

Safety

Pharmacy

• Guazzieri, Via Antonio Gramsci, ☎ 39 0861-82233. 

How to keep in touch

Post office

• Italian post, viale Roma 80, ☎ 39 0861 856845, fax: 39 0861 82293. 

Keep informed

• Val Vibrata life. online news head of the Val Vibrata 

Around

• Ascoli Piceno - The city is about 24 Km from Civitella del Tronto along the SP8 and reach the SP81 and then follow the direction of Ascoli Piceno. It is known as the City of a hundred towers. Its historic center is famous for having houses, palaces, churches, bridges and elevated towers in travertine. Here, history and architectural styles have settled their passage from the Roman age to the Middle Ages, up to the Renaissance. Artists such as Cola dell'Amatrice, Lazzaro Morelli, Carlo Crivelli, Giosafatti and other talented sculptors, stonecutters, painters have left a mark of their talent. It welcomes one of the most beautiful squares in Italy: Piazza del Popolo, center of cultural and political life, framed by arcades with loggias, Palazzo dei Capitani and Caffè Meletti. Every year in August the Quintana is held there, a historical re-enactment in costume with a procession and competition of six knights vying for the conquest of the Palio.
• Civitella del Tronto - Perched on a ridge, it offers us the spectacle of its fortifications which are among the best preserved and the largest in Europe; it was the last stronghold to surrender, when the rest of the Bourbon kingdom had already been conquered from Italy.
• Teramo - Ancient city with an important historical center, it boasts a splendid Cathedral which is one of the best expressions of Abruzzo's religious architecture. It has important Roman remains.
• Giulianova - The ancient city, on a hill, preserves the remains of the fortifications and ancient churches; the urban development spread on the coast constitutes one of the most important seaside resorts in the region.

Other projects

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