Set like a diamond between the Pescara coast and the Gran Sasso, Loreto Aprutino is a town of art, of great history, and of notable cultural depth, among the most beautiful in Abruzzo. It stands suggestively in the ancient land of the Vestini, on the top of a hill 307 meters above sea level, among immense expanses of olive groves.
Its historic center keeps its historical-architectural features intact, along with the characteristic medieval appearance of houses and palaces clustered around the Castle, and it reveals itself to those arriving from state road 151 in a spectacular way and with great emotional impact, through the polychromy of the house facades and the ochre of the bricks.
A bit of History
The town has borne this double name only since 1863 when, with the unification of Italy, it had to be distinguished from the homonymous town in the Marche region. Its origin, however, is very ancient, as can be seen from the countless testimonies found in the Fiorano area, where numerous necropolises of the Vestini population have been discovered, probably dating back to Italic settlements of the IV-V century B.C.
The oldest core of Castrum Lauretum has been documented since the year 884 and is mentioned among the possessions of Montecassino. By 1071 Loreto had already become a Norman county and had 1056 inhabitants. Later it entered the orbit of the Angevins and, after a fierce opposition to Frederick II, in 1252 it was subjugated by Conradin.
In the following centuries the County of Loreto was ruled by powerful families, among them the D'Aquino in the 14th century and the D'Avalos in the 15th, until 1806 when the Napoleonic code came into force, putting an end to the counties.
The Charm of the Historic Center
A visit to Loreto must start from the historic center, among the three hundred most beautiful in Italy. At least three phases of expansion can be distinguished within it, with two circles of walls, an extra moenia district used as a market created in 1500, and a nucleus built between 1800 and 1900 located in the downstream part.
Loreto has several gates: Porta Castello, Porta dell'Ospedale, Porta Palamolla, which lead to the town. Dozens of narrow streets, the typical ruelle, descend towards the main street of Baio, a very ancient road along which the facades of the old noble palaces of the most important families in Loreto's history line up.
While the two ends of the street define the upper part of the village, the imposing Castle of Loreto, known as Castello Chiola, dates back to the 9th century, where legend has it that St. Thomas Aquinas stayed.
Places of Worship and Precious Museums
Among the sacred buildings of great value stands out the Abbey of San Pietro Apostolo, the mother church of Loreto from the 1400s, preceded by a suggestive loggia overlooking the Maiella. Its flooring is made of precious Castelli ceramics.
Another valuable place of worship is the Church of San Francesco d'Assisi, which preserves all its medieval characteristics: a beautiful 14th-century portal with an adjoining cloister, splendid frescoes, the wooden cross by Francesco Novelli, and an organ from 1745 by Adriano Fedri.
Also in the historic center are two important museums:
The Castelli Ceramics Museum collects majolicas of inestimable value, the fruit of Baron Giacomo Acerbo's passion. It is located in the historic center of the town, just below Via del Baio, near the church of San Pietro.
The Oil Museum, on the other hand, is set up in the ancient and innovative oil mill of Raffaele Baldini Palladini, a farsighted entrepreneur who made Loreto oil known all over the world between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is located in the Castelletto Amorotti, a singular late-nineteenth-century neo-Gothic reconstruction, according to some critics designed by Francesco Paolo Michetti, his dear friend.
