Ortona - Ortona

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

Ortona is a city ofAbruzzo.

To know

Ortona, in the past also known as Ortona a mare, has the largest regional port in terms of basin, size and movement. Ortona is also a city of wine.

Geographical notes

Located on a cliff of Adriatic coast of Abruzzo in Coast of the trabocchi, is about 30 km from Chieti, 22 from Pescara, 21 from They launch.

Background

Finds in the area of ​​the Aragonese Castle indicate that the site was already inhabited from the Bronze Age. The same toponym Ortona or better Hortona could be of pre or proto-Indo-European origin. In historical times it was inhabited by the Italic population of the Frentani who made it their port. As such in the 1st century BC. participated in the anti-Roman revolt of those peoples who united in a league with capital Corfinio for the first time in history they called themselves "Italics". The Roman city was built on the Italic city: some road layouts and portions of the enclosure remain, of which various artifacts have been found. When the Roman Empire fell, the city passed under Byzantine domination, becoming both a strategic point of the war against the Lombards who controlled the hinterland, and a place for the exchange of goods between them. In the year 803 it was conquered by the Franks and annexed to the county of ChietiFollowing the Norman conquest of 1075 the city was annexed to the Kingdom of Sicily. In 1258 the bones of the Apostle Thomas were brought to Ortona, coming from the Greek island of Chios, in the Aegean, by the Ortonese sailor Leone Acciaiuoli returning from an Ortonese naval expedition in support of the Venetians fighting against the Genoese.

In the first half of the 15th century the walls still visible in part were built by the leader Giacomo Caldora. During the 15th century the city experienced a season of strife with the neighboring city of They launch, completed in 1427 with a peacemaker award. Peace, sponsored by San Giovanni da Capestrano, was solemnly proclaimed on February 17, 1427 in the church of San Tommaso in Ortona. Even today the remains of the saint are kept in the homonymous Cathedral of San Tommaso, where numerous works related to the history of the city are collected.

On 30 June 1447, due to the rivalries between Alfonso of Aragon and the Republic of Venice, Ortona was invaded by the Venetians who destroyed the port, warehouses and naval arsenal without being able to penetrate the walls. The construction of the Aragonese castle dates back to this period, partly collapsed and partly destroyed by wars, but recently restored. The project of the Aragonese castle is attributable to Francesco di Giorgio Martini who in the same period I worked in the nearby Montefeltro. Relations with Venice were fluctuating, being Ortona sometimes close to this, sometimes preferring to establish relations with the Republic of Ragusa, in DalmatiaIn 1582 the city was bought by Margherita d 'Austria, daughter of Charles V, Duchess of Parma is Piacenza. Margherita herself decided in 1584 to build a large ducal palace designed by Giacomo Della Porta (Palazzo Farnese), never completed due to his death.In 1816 it became part of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. From 1829 to 1854 there were timid anti-Bourbon initiatives thanks to a group of Carbonari.

On 9 September 1860 the Decurionate (Municipal Council) of Ortona approved the accession to the Kingdom of Italy, or rather to the provisional government of Garibaldi, before the battle of Castelfidardo (18 September) and that of the Volturno (1-2 October).

On 3 February 1916, during the First World War, an Austro-Hungarian team formed by the armored cruiser SMS Sankt Georg, three destroyers and two torpedo boats bombed Ortona and San Vito Chietino; the action was interrupted by the intervention of an armed train of the Royal Navy equipped with 152/40 pieces which with its counter battery forced the ships to abandon the assault.

There Stalingrad of Italy

During the Second World War the city became a terrain of fierce clashes between the Germanic and allied troops. On the night between 9 and 10 September 1943, the royal family of Savoy, after spending the night in the ducal castle of Crecchio, left the Italy occupied by the Nazis from the port of Ortona to land in the already liberated Toast to guarantee the legitimate institutional governance of the nation. From Ortona passes the Gustav line, which has the other end a Cassino: a fortified line of defense prepared by the Germanic forces in the narrowest point of the peninsula. In fact, it was during the Second World War that Ortona experienced truly difficult moments. Most of the Ortona population is forced to flee their homes. To the north the German army and to the south that of the allies bomb Ortona continuously for about 6 months. The practically razed city was defined by Winston Churchill as the Stalingrad of Italy due to the fact that, similarly to the Soviet city, the battle lasted a long time in the body of the city. Very few buildings remained standing and in any case with very serious structural damage which led to the demolition for safety reasons. The city was only liberated in December 1943 when the allied forces crossed the Gustav Line on the Adriatic side. For this reason Ortona was awarded the gold medal for civil valor.

How to orient yourself

Neighborhoods

Its municipal area has a large number of villages and localities: Acquabella, Alboreto, Aquilano, Arielli, Bardella, Bavi, Caldari, Caldari Stazione, Cappellini, Casone, Ciampino, Civitarese, Colombo, Cristo Re, Croce di Bavi, Cucullo, Feudo , Fontegrande, Fonticelli, Forum of Ortona, Fossato, Gagliarda Alta, Gagliarda, Ghiomera, Granciaro, Lazzaretto, Madonna degli Angeli, Madonna delle Grazie, Madonna delle Vasche, Moretti, Moro, Morrecine, Peticcio, Polidoro, Postilli, Ranchini, Riccio, Shelters, Shelters of Job, Rogatti, Ruscitti, San Donato, San Giuliano, San Marco, San Martino, San Pietro, Santa Liberata, Santa Lucia, Sant'Andrea, Sant'Elena, Saraceni, Savini, Schiavi, Tamarete, Taverna Nuova, Torre Foro, Torre Mucchia, Torre Pizzis, Vaccari, Villa Carlone, Villa Deo, Villa Grande, Villa Iubatti, Villa Iurisci, Villa Magna, Villa Panaro, Villa Pincione, Villa San Leonardo, Villa San Nicola, Villa San Tommaso, Villa Sarchese, Villa Torre and Villa Rogatti.

How to get

By plane

• Pescara airport (Abruzzo Airport), Via Tiburtina Km 229.100, ☎ 39 085 432 4201. The airport acts as a regional airport. 

By car

• A14 Adriatica motorway, Ortona exit.
• Adriatic coast

On boat

• Ortona has a large commercial port with services for pleasure boats.

On the train

• Ortona station is located on the Adriatic railway backbone. From here a line of the Sangritane Railways branches off for the interior towards the Apennines.

By bus

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

How to get around

What see

• 42.35720214.404281 St. Thomas Cathedral, piazza San Tommaso. It was originally called the church of Santa Maria Regina degli Angeli. It was built in the early years of Christianity in the paleochristian style, subsequently it was burned by the Normans, then it was rebuilt and opened again for religious functions in 1127.

After 1258, when he welcomed the sacred remains of St. Thomas the Apostle brought by the Ortonese sailors who stole them fromChios island led by Leone Acciaioli from Ortona, the name of the church was changed to today's for obvious reasons.

During the Ottoman invasion the church was destroyed in 1566 by the sultan Piyale_Pascià.

It was put back on its feet but was destroyed again by the Nazi army on December 21, 1943, when they blew up the clock tower. It was rebuilt between 1945 and the following year.

The original apparatuses are two stone portals (one from 1312 by Nicola Mancino, ruined by the explosion of 1943; the second, from an unidentified previous period, is the only one completely intact). The monumental main portal in wood is finely inlaid. Above there is an ogival arched lunette with statues. The whole is framed by marble. On the sides of the door there are columns, one different from the other.

A baroque dome is placed in the area of ​​the altar. Its red-purple fresco is interesting. At the far right is the crypt of St. Thomas with a small altar above the funeral coffin containing his bones. 

• 42.35966814.4009232 Church of the Holy Trinity. The church was built in the early 17th century. To this day it has the same features of the initial construction. A small portico faces the facade. Inside there is an inlaid wooden tabernacle and some paintings by Giovan Battista Spinelli. To the side of the church stands the former Capuchin convent. 
• 42.34931214.4061723 Church of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli, via Don Bosco. The construction is to be ascribed to the Celestine friars who built it together with the adjacent convent.

Destroyed by the Turks in 1566, it was rebuilt decades later. It was destroyed again by the Nazis during World War II. Of the original structure remains only a fragment of the facade and a Byzantine-style fresco representing the Virgin with the Child Jesus.

The church, now rebuilt, has a typically Baroque rectangular plan. The façade has a central rose window and a fourteenth-century pointed portal. 

• Church of Santa Caterina. The church is the only one in Baroque style to have remained almost intact in its structure even if it was tried by the Nazi bombings of World War II. The marble altar is from the 19th century, from the Neapolitan school. On the walls there are paintings by G. B. Spinelli from the seventeenth century. On the side of the portal there is a balcony reserved for the Cistercian nuns to follow religious functions in a private and secluded way. The portal is made of stone (perhaps 14th century) and the door is inlaid 
• Church of the Madonna dell'Olivastro (Madonna of the Tubs). It is located near the provincial road for Pescara. It is about 2 km from Ortona.

The interior is little more than a chapel, very picturesque and decrepit and is poorly maintained, as is the exterior. The portal is surmounted by a lunette.

The altar rests directly on the wall. On the wall of the altar there are sacred images. The sloping ceiling that follows the roof is made of wood with simple and rural entablatures. The bell tower placed on the roof consists of a simple wall with a sloping roof without tiles and a square window in which there was a bell. 

• Church of the Madonna della Pace (Our Lady of Grace). It was built between 1430 and 1440 to guarantee peace between Ortona and They launch: it preserves the uncorrupted body of the blessed Lorenzo da Villamagna, who lived in the annexed Franciscan convent which was demolished to build a factory. 
• Church of San Rocco. The church is in Baroque-Romanesque style. The bell tower consists of single lancet windows and porthole windows in the shape of a circle with a frame.

Inside there are paintings surmounted by stucco statuettes of seraph angels and cherubs. A hemispherical aedicule houses a statue of San Rocco. 

• St. Mark's Basilica. Remains of the Basilica of San Marco remain on a hill overlooking the sea near Ortona. It dates back to the Lombard period. It was built in the 7th-9th centuries AD. 
• Caldari Baptistery (Church of S. Zefferino). The Baptistery is in stone, and was built for the church of Caldari by Mons.G.D. Rebiba (1570-1596). The base bears a coat of arms and an inscription indicating Monsignor Rebida as the first bishop of Ortona. 
• Church of San Francesco, Piazza Risorgimento. The bell tower is medieval. The lower part has been changed. 
• Chapel of the Crucifix, Theater Square. It is located next to the church of Santa Caterina. A fresco inside the fifteenth century depicts Christ on the cross. Tradition has it that, on the morning of June 13, 1566, the side of Christ in the painting oozed blood. The blood was collected by the nuns and preserved to this day in 3 cruets. 
• Church of San Donato (in San Donato). It was built in 1945 for the inauguration of the Ortonese Canadian cemetery in the hamlet of San Donato. The single nave layout has fairly classical forms, without significant architectural forms. The church and the cemetery are half of frequent pilgrimages by Americans to commemorate the battle of Ortona, together with the English cemetery of Turin di Sangro, not far away. 
• Former Augustinian convent. It has been remodeled over the centuries until it is currently used as a gym. To the east is the sandstone portal probably from the late 15th-early 16th century. 
• Former Capuchin convent. Adjacent to the church of the Holy Trinity built in the first decades of the seventeenth century. On the ground floor there was the ossuary of the cemetery. Some rooms are in their original form. In the cloister surrounded by a portico there is a well. 
• Ex-convent of the Cistercians. It has been renovated according to various uses over time, although there are now remains of the original structure. In the courtyard the nuns followed the ecclesiastical functions through a grating. An act of the seventeenth century mentions nuns of this convent, which therefore has at least seventeenth-century origins. 
• 42.35866514.4061694 Aragonese castle, Largo Castello 3. The first construction dates back to 1492. After decades of neglect, it was the subject of restoration and consolidation works started in 2001.

The base is almost trapezoidal and is characterized by four cylindrical corner towers (although only three have survived today [1]) and by curtains on an escarpment. The west side was occupied by a residential building. During the Second World War it was severely damaged, and the subsequent landslide of 1946 destroyed much of the remaining castle so that until the recent restorations only part of the curtain walls, the remains of two towers and the southern portion of the moat remained. Some hypothesize that the construction is much older than previously believed, given some styles of the fortress in the Angevin style, and that Giacomo Cavuto could have strengthened the castle that could have been pre-existing. In the 15th century there were some adaptations and partial reconstructions of a pre-existing system. 

• Baglioni Tower, via G. D'Annunzio. It is located at the Marina gate, on the edge of the Caldorian walls. It belonged to the Bernards, the Salzano-De Luna, and finally the Baglioni. It has a square structure. 
• Mucchia Tower. Located 4 km from Ortona, on the promontory near Lido Riccio, in the Contrada San Marco, it has a truncated pyramid structure with a square brick base. It is part of the long series of coastal towers of the Kingdom of Naples, which defended the coast from the Ottoman and Turkish invasions. It was built in the 2nd part of the 16th century by the Viceroy of Naples Don Pedro Afán de Ribera. In the 18th century it was transformed as a customs office. 
• Ricciardi Tower, Corso Matteotti. It dates back to around the 15th century. It is the only part of the Ricciardi Palace of the homonymous family that was expelled from Ortona in the early 16th century. The original appearance of the building can be admired in a drawing of the city from 1590. 
• Ortona Canadian Military Cemetery. 

Museums

• 42.35714814.4047055 Capitular Museum (Diocesan Museum), piazza San Tommaso 1, ☎ 39 085 9062977. The first nucleus of the museum collection was collected after the Second World War in order to preserve and protect the numerous and valuable artistic works from the 12th to the 19th century, coming from the Cathedral and other places of worship in the area, which escaped the destruction of the bombings suffered by the city ​​of Ortona during the Second World War.

On the occasion of the solemn celebrations for the feast of the Pardon of St. Thomas the Apostle, on May 3, 1980, the structure was opened to the public as the Cathedral Museum and only after further restoration and rearrangement works, in 2003, was it recognized as an articulation of the Diocesan Museum. of Lanciano-Ortona.

The works preserved in it, exhibited in three large rooms, occupied in past centuries by as many chapels connected to the main church, represent in a paradigmatic way the artistic and cultural level reached by Ortona in the course of its history but above all they are a concrete testimony of the will to safeguard its cultural heritage for the benefit of future generations, even in the most devastating disasters, as was certainly the destruction to which the city was subjected in December 1943. 

• Civic Museum of Contemporary Art (Cascella Art Gallery). 
• Music Museum of Abruzzo (Archive "Francesco Paolo Tosti"). 
• MUBA - Museum of the Battle of Ortona. 
• Mediterranean Ex Libris Museum. 

Events and parties

• Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle (Feast of Forgiveness). First Sunday of May. St. Thomas is the patron saint of the city and of the archdiocese of They launch - Ortona. During the celebrations, which usually last 3 days, the Forgiveness takes place, characterized by a procession in which people are dressed in typical clothes and bring gifts to St. Thomas and days in which the Plenary Indulgence can be accessed. Furthermore, the public order service in the church is directed by an association called "Amici del Cattedrale". 
• Good Friday. A procession runs through all the streets of the center, starting and returning from the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie; the so-called are brought Thalamus which are wooden sculptures that represent the main moments of the Passion of Jesus, while women sing the Miserere, accompanied by the band. 
• Lu Sant'Antonjie. January 17. Historical re-enactment of "Lu Sant'Antonjie". 

City festivals

In addition to the three most important events mentioned above, minor festivals are also held in the neighborhood:

• St. Sebastian Martyr (Terravecchia District - Concatterale Parish of St. Thomas the Apostle). 20 th January. 
• St. Joseph (San Giuseppe district). March 19. 
• Madonna del Carmine (Madonna del Carmine district). July 16. 
• Madonna of the Angels (Neighborhood Madonna degli Angeli). 2 August. 
• Madonna of the Assumption (Santa Maria district of Constantinople). August 15. 
• San Rocco (Santa Maria district of Constantinople). August 16. 

The following recurrences are experienced at the parish level:

• St. John Bosco (Parish of St. Mary of Constantinople). January 31. 
• San Biagio (Co-Cathedral Parish of St. Thomas the Apostle). February 3. 
• Saint Rita of Cascia (Church of S.Rocco). may 22. 
• Blessed Lorenzo of Villamagna (Parish of S. Maria delle Grazie). June 6. 
• Saint Anthony of Padua (Parish of S. Maria delle Grazie). June 13. 
• Our Lady of Grace. 2nd of July. Parishes of San Giuseppe and Santa Maria delle Grazie 
• St. Thomas the Apostle (Co-Cathedral Parish of St. Thomas the Apostle). July 3. 
• Saint Francis of Assisi (Parish of S. Maria delle Grazie). October 4th. 
• Saint Lucia Virgin and Martyr (Co-Cathedral Parish of St. Thomas the Apostle). December 13. 

What to do

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

Moderate prices

• 42.34757114.4019781 La Cicogna Vola Chinese Restaurant, Corso Libertà, 181, ☎ 39 085 9063697. 

Average prices

• 42.34878814.4010012 Pizzeria La Rustica, Via Papa Giovanni XXIII, 70, ☎ 39 085 906 4798. 
• 42.35112414.4027933 Marcucci Pizzeria, Via Ceccario, 12, ☎ 39 085 9066473. 
• 42.35380714.4041614 Al Vecchio Teatro Restaurant, Largo Ripetta 7, ☎ 39 085 906 4495. 
• 42.35496914.4021795 Trattoria di Pesce Da Mario, Via Cavour, 63, ☎ 39 085 9064995. 
• 42.35526214.4042076 Miramare restaurant, Largo Farnese, 15, ☎ 39 085 9066556. 
• 42.356614.4032467 Pizzeria Braceria Da Fabio Restaurant, Piazza Plebiscito, 5, ☎ 39 085 9062749. 
• 42.3582114.4056868 Trattoria San Domenico, Vicolo S. Domenico, 1, ☎ 39 085 9066442, @trattoriasandomenico.comFORMAT. 

Where stay

Average prices

• 42.35457314.402851 B&B Maison Charmante, Via Guglielmo Marconi, 6, ☎ 39 327 5378101. 
• 42.3585814.3998862 B&B Via Roma Suite, Via Roma, 79, ☎ 39 342 3731278. 
• 42.36716314.3904443 ^{[link not working]}B&B Il Colle, Job shelters, ☎ 39 085 9062408. 
• 42.35696114.4019634 B&B Licia, Via dei Frentani, 10, ☎ 39 085 9063696. 
• 42.3539614.4039475 Hotel The Rooms of the Old Theater, Corso Garibaldi, 35, ☎ 39 085 9064495. 
• 42.35464614.4040776 Ideal hotel, Corso Giuseppe Garibaldi 65, ☎ 39 085 9063735. 

Camping

• 42.37114214.3927 Camping Village Ripari di Giobbe, Contrada Repair, ☎ 39 085 9067098. 

Safety

Pharmacy

• 42.34937114.402241 Crickets, Corso Libertà, 70, ☎ 39 085 906 2229. 
• 42.34614914.401612 Conduct, Via dello Sport, 8, ☎ 39 085 9194191. 
• 42.35358814.4030423 De Berardinis, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 74, ☎ 39 085 9063758. 
• 42.35235814.4027474 Cames, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 5. 
• 42.29229414.3658745 Franceschelli, Via Principale, 410 (locality Villa Caldari), ☎ 39 085 9032227. Franceschelli Maria Raffaella Pharmacy 
• 42.35528214.4034226 Valentinetti, Republic Square, 5, ☎ 39 085 9063498. 

How to keep in touch

Post office

• Italian post, Corso Giacomo Matteotti 27, ☎ 39 085 9051111. 
• 42.34945814.4036787 Italian post (Post office Ortona 1), Via B. Cascella, 60, ☎ 39 085 906 2478. 
• Italian post (Post office Ortona Foro), via Tommaso Mosca 8, ☎ 39 085 9067513. 
• Italian post (Ortona Villagrande post office), alley of Sport 6, ☎ 39 085 9194000. 
• Italian post, via Palazzo 81 (in San Leonardo di Ortona), ☎ 39 085 9197148. 

Around

• Pescara - Largest commercial and industrial center inAbruzzo, is also a popular seaside resort.
• Chieti - The ancient Teate, capital of the Marrucini, is located inland not very far from the sea. It is a city of services, trade, services and culture.
• 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
• Fossacesia - To visit its Abbey of San Giovanni in Venere.

Other projects

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

Draft : the article respects the standard template contains useful information for a tourist and gives brief information on the tourist destination. Header and footer are correctly filled out.