**ABRUZZO (ABRUZZI). - I. GEOGRAPHY.** - A region of central Italy bordered by the Marches, Umbria, Lazio, and Molise, which faces the Adriatic between the mouths of the Tronto and Trigno rivers and extends westward to the Simbruini and Ernici Mountains, which separate the Marsica (western Abruzzo) from the Ciociaria (southeastern Lazio). From the narrow coastal strip, composed of modest tertiary hills (clays, marls, sands), one ascends abruptly to a vast region of highlands (averaging 80 km in width and 150 km in length), entirely encircled by mountains (Monti della Laga, Gran Sasso, Maiella, Meta, Ernici, Simbruini, Sabini) that reach or exceed 2,000 meters in several places (2,914 meters at Monte Corno, the highest peak of the entire Apennines). Other mountain barriers traverse the interior in several series, generally oriented from northwest to southeast and nearly parallel, creating numerous longitudinal valleys (upper Velino, upper Tronto, Aterno, Salto, Turano, Liri, upper Aniene, Sangro), residual lake basins (Fucino), karst depressions (campi), and more or less extensive remnants of elevated planation surfaces.
The climate exhibits considerable variations not only between the coastal margin and the interior but also within the interior itself, between enclosed basins or valley floors and summit areas. In general, the plateau has long, harsh winters with abundant snowfall; rainfall is rather scarce throughout and typically decreases from west to east. Aridity and the continental climate, accentuated and rugged relief (and the consequent difficulty of communications), and the predominance of calcareous soils explain Abruzzo’s pastoral vocation, the modest development of agriculture there, and even more so the limited growth of modern industry, as well as the conservative character of its economy. The population is concentrated primarily in the coastal region and in the intermontane basins, the most important of which are the largest: Sulmona (403 m), Avezzano (698 m), and L’Aquila (721 m). There are few urban centers of significant size, only two of which (L’Aquila and Pescara) exceed 50,000 inhabitants.
| Province (and provincial seat population) | Number of municipalities | Area (sq km) | Population (1936 census) | Density |
|------------------------------------------|--------------------------|--------------|--------------------------|---------|
| L’AQUILA (54,722) | 104 | 5,032 | 365,716 | 73 |
| CHIETI (30,266) | 99 | 2,582 | 374,727 | 145 |
| PESCARA (51,808) | 43 | 1,225 | 211,561 | 173 |
| TERAMO (33,796) | 24 | 1,948 | 249,352 | 128 |
| **Totals** | 270 | 10,787 | 1,201,356 | 111 |
Molise (v.) is usually included with Abruzzo as a single historical region.
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**ABRUZZO - II. HISTORY.** - In Roman times, Abruzzo comprised the Fourth Region of Italy, inhabited by the Sabines in the area of Rieti, Antrodoco, and Amiternum; by the Aequi and Marsi along the valley of the Cicoli and the highlands of the Fucino; by the Vestini, who extended from Aveia and Forcona (near L’Aquila) to Ofena, Penne, Atri, and Teramo, the ancient Praetutium, later Aprutium, from which the name Abruzzo derives; by the Peligni, inhabitants of the ancient cities of Sulmona, Valva, Pentima, and Corfinio; by the Marrucini, whose chief cities were Chieti (Teate) and Pescara (Aternum); by the Frentani in the area of Ortona, Lanciano, and Histonium, between the Maiella and the Adriatic; and by the Samnites, who extended from Alfedena (Aufidena) and Castel di Sangro to the cities of Molise, Isernia, Trivento, and Boiano.
Given Abruzzo’s proximity to Lazio, the evangelical message certainly reached these peoples early, especially the cities along the consular roads of the Salaria, Valeria, and Claudia Nova. Christian cemeteries dating to the 4th century have been found in S. Vittorino d’Amiterno and S. Giusta di Bazzano. Angelo Silvagni compiled a dozen Christian inscriptions from Abruzzo dating from the 4th to the 6th centuries. Popular and fanciful accounts by some writers claim that the region’s earliest episcopal sees were founded by the apostles’ disciples; modern scholarship, however, with F. Lanzoni (*Le diocesi d’Italia*, I, pp. 344-80) and others, does not consider them older than the 4th century. During the early Middle Ages, various *Passiones*, or hagiographic legends, flourished in Abruzzo, such as those of St. Anatolia the Martyr, St. Maximus the Levite, St. Vittorino of Amiternum, St. Cetteus of Pescara, the Celanian martyrs Simplicius, Constantine, and Victorinus, Rufinus and Cesidius in Trasacco, St. Justin, Bishop of Chieti, St. Justa of Bazzano, St. Eusonius and companions in Forcona, and St. Pelinus in Corfinio—legends all examined and judged by the Bollandists in their *Acta Sanctorum* and listed in the *BHL* under their respective names and feast days.
The medieval history of Abruzzo, in addition to contemporary diplomatic documents, is transmitted through the monastic chronicles of Farfa, S. Vincenzo al Volturno, S. Clemente a Casauria, and S. Bartolomeo a Carpineto. The Abruzzese scholar Antinori published nearly all the Aquilan chronicles in the *Antiquitates Italiae* of Muratori; in modern times, F. Savini illustrated the entire Church of Teramo with numerous unpublished documents. On the Aquilan Saints (*Aquila* 1849) and their sanctuaries, the Franciscan D. Casciola da S. Eusonio wrote extensively, later followed by his confrere G. Obletter for the dioceses of Chieti and Vasto (*Teramo* 1924). In 1900, the second edition of the *Calendario dei Santi Abruzzesi*, compiled by a layman according to the days of their feasts, was published in Atri by the De Arcangelis press.
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**ABRUZZO - III. SACRED ART.** - Art in Abruzzo was almost exclusively religious in character, and medieval church architecture was its highest and most original expression. Remains of monuments prior to the year 1000 are scarce and insignificant. The first revival of artistic activity in the region was promoted during the 11th century by the immigration of monastic craftsmen from Montecassino: in the abbey church of S. Liberatore alla Maiella, they established, from the early years of the 11th century, a type of basilican construction with three naves divided by square piers and semicircular arches, with apses and exposed roofing, from which Abruzzese sacred architecture long derived its salient features.
To this first great architectural movement, precisely called the “S. Liberatore” school, with its solemnly classicizing imprint yet containing Lombard elements, are linked the ancient oratory of S. Alessandro annexed to the Valvense cathedral, of very singular plan; the churches of S. Pietro ad Oratorium at Capestrano, of S. Clemente al Vomano, and that of S. Maria di Bominaco (early 12th century), on whose façade there begins timidly to appear that horizontal-crowned scheme which would become one of the most typical and constant characteristics of Abruzzese churches, continuing to flourish right into the mature Renaissance (façade of S. Bernardino at L’Aquila, by Cola dell’Amatrice, 1540). “Heir and continuator of the methods of S. Liberatore” (Gavini) was the “Valvense School,” whose founding monument was the cathedral of S. Pelino ad Valvas near Pentima, today Confino (consecrated in 1124), with an apsed transept and an octagonal tower-dome at the crossing, on which were modeled the cathedrals of Sulmona, Teramo, and Chieti. The ornamental sumptuousness of the Valvense School was, however, surpassed by the stylistic refinements of the “Casauriense School,” which originally assimilated forms of Burgundian architecture (v. BAROCCA, ARTE) such as had already appeared in the rebuilding of the abbatial church of S. Giovanni in Venere at Fossacesia (begun 1165), and created in S. Clemente at Casauria (1176–82) the masterpiece of Romanesque architecture in the region.
Alongside these three great schools, direct offshoots of the Cassinese Benedictine tradition, there flourished during the 13th century several smaller ones, likewise of monastic imprint but with greater variety of local accents: for example, in the Marsica, where in the middle of the preceding century the Benedictines had built, using classical spolia, the most noble temple of S. Pietro at Alba Fucense. So vigorous was the flowering of Romanesque architecture that it may have retarded the emergence of French Gothic forms, of which Abruzzo received an early contribution in the Cistercian church of S. Maria d’Arabona near Chieti (founded 1208); yet the currents derived from it, blending variously with elements of tradition, gave rise at the close of the Duecento and throughout the Trecento to a splendid efflorescence of churches, especially in the territories of Lanciano and Atri and in the city of L’Aquila: the most elegant façade
