History of Ortucchio and Abruzzi
Ortucchio is located fifteen miles south of Avezzano in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzi region, where some of the wildest yet most beautiful country in Italy is located. The Abruzzo is a land of wilderness, dense forests and mountain massifs. Here the plants of the Alpines meet with those of the Mediterranean. It is the heartland of the Apennines and within its boundaries lies Italy's highest peak, the Gran Sasso. Of the 261 villages known as communes in the Abruzzo, only 23 are below 1,600 feet. For centuries it has been one of Italy's most remote and isolated areas and even today this mountain supports only about three percent of the Italian population.

Due to the high altitude and harsh climate, the snow lasts from early November to late May. Frequently the mountain peaks are capped with snow as late as June. Because of the severe climate and poor soil, for centuries the economic mainstay of the Abruzzese life was sheep farming. Sheep farming was at its peak in the 1700's. Since local pasture was too poor to sustain the animals through the stark winter and because the land in Puglia, a province further south, was scorched by the summer sun, wealthy landowners developed a system known as transhumance that incorporated the best of both worlds. They organized twice-yearly migrations over ancient sheep ways known as trattari. Flocks of twelve abreast were driven over these sheep ways which were as wide as sixty-six feet in some places. These flocks were broken into divisions, each one led by a shepherd and an old ram called the manso, which meant it was gentle or trained. During these earlier times, over a million sheep a year were moved in this way. Each succeeding century has seen a decline in sheep farming. Today the flocks are smaller, the trattori abandoned and the migration is made by trucks.

In the last century, Napolean introduced to Italy the cottage industry of raising silk worms. If the women of Ortucchio were not spinners of wool, then they were spinners of silk. Silk from southern Italy was not the gossamer type used in fine garments, but rather it was used to make heavy fabrics such as damask, which was used in draperies and upholstery.

On the southern face of the Gran Sasso lies the Fucino Basin. it is here on the southeastern rim that Ortucchio, one of the most ancient towns in the Fucino plain, is located. Archaeologists have found in this area traces of settlements dating from the Upper Paleolithic Age. These ancient people were basically nomadic cave dwellers whose primitive animal art links them with similar people in the Spanish Peninsula and Southern France. During Roman times Ortucchio was a playground for the Roman aristocracy. First destroyed by the Romans during the "social war", it then became the site of sumptuous festivals. In the summer Lake Fucino was the setting for spectacular mock battles staged to amuse the Roman Emperors.

At one time when the lake still existed, Ortucchio was an unusual town. Depending on the level of the water, it was either on an island or a peninsula. As a result Ortucchio was frequently isolated from outside contact. For this reason its customs are quite different from the surrounding villages. The town has a small Piccolomini castle which was a part of the town's defenses during the Middle Ages. When it was built in 1488, the town was an island a short distance from the shore. Today this castle is the only example in the area of a lake castle. For some unknown reason, the entrance door to the castle is located on the short side facing east. The castle has been completely restored after being almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake. During the late 1800's, the lake was drained to provide more farm land and this, consequently, brought many new people into the area. The head of the Lire River begins near Ortucchio and its church is known as Santa Maria Capo d'Acqua or St. Mary, at the Head of the Water. The Lire River flows along the southern edge of the Fucino Basin, down the mountains pass Monte Cassino, through the Lazio and into the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The oddly distorted contours of the landscape in the Abruzzo area are due to the destructive earthquakes for which this region is prone. Since the 14th Century most of these disasters occurred in January. Perhaps the most destructive one occurred on January 13, 1915 at which time 30,000 people died, more then one third of them from Avezzano alone, and 400 communes were razed. On exactly the same date the following year, nearly another 30,000 people died in a second quake. According to an Abruzzo proverb, "When the cold is at its strongest, the earthquake is at its greatest."

In the 1915 earthquake, Ortucchio received its share of devastation as well. The disaster struck during the early morning when church services were being held. The stone church in Ortucchio, as in many Abruzzese village, collapsed upon the parishioners, killing many of them. Some entire families perished at this time. Although the church of Santa Maria, Capo d'Acqua has been rebuilt, the town hall has not been.

Within two hours of landing at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci International Airport, visitors can be in Ortucchio. However, there are no hotel accommodations, but the nearest hotel is in Pescina, about ten miles away. A bus service connects the two communes.

SOURCES:

Baedeker's Italy. NY, Ny: Prentice-Hall, 1991.

Duggan, Christopher. A Concise History of Italy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Jepson, Tim. Wild Italy. San Francisco, CA; Sierra Club Book, 1994.

"Earthquake in Italy Kills 12,000; Whole Villages Wiped Out by Shock, 8,000 Perish in One Little Town". New York Times, 14 January 1915.

Sottoriva, Per Giacomo. Abruzzo. Abruzzi, IT: Instituto Geographico De Agostini, n.d.



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