Colonnella

Sister cities

• Trets

History

According to Pliny the Elder in his Natural Historia, in ancient times, in the territory of greater Colonnella, stood the Liburnic city of Truentum, now believed to be in the current Colle della Civita. Archaeological traces of the Roman period are scattered throughout the territory of Colonnella and the best preserved among them are ancient Roman Cisterns, Cincolà and Ricci. After the western Roman Empire came under the rule of the eastern Roman Empire beginning in 476 CE, first with Odoacer and then under the Ostrogoths, the Colonnella area continued to be part of the Praetorian prefecture of Italy. In 535, the Roman emperor Justinian I invaded Italy as part of a war of re-conquest of the west. It was a brutal war, and Truentum suffered the dismantling of the port and the destruction of the city. The decimated people took refuge in the surrounding hills of the ancient city. From this, Colonnella was born several decades later, after the Lombards invaded now Byzantine Italy. Around 580, the area was invaded by the Lombards. The survivors of Truentum, which was now definitively abandoned, rebuilt on the hill of the current hamlet of the Civita, a settlement called Civitas Tomacchiara and, at the mouth of the Tronto, Torri a Tronto. However, the incursions and insecurity of those times pushed the populations of the two villages increasingly inland; and, coming together at the highest point of the surrounding hills, founded Colonnella. The city arose from the encastling of these two populations: that of the parish of San Biagio, formerly occupying the easternmost part of the settlement, and that of Saints Cipriano and Giustina, the only parish that survives today. The city's name appears to derive from the Latin columella (small column) and not from the later feudal…

Geography

Colonnella is located in the Val Vibrata (Valley of the Vibrata River). To the north it is bordered by the municipality of Monteprandone in the Marche region, to the east by the municipality of Martinsicuro, to the south by Alba Adriatica, and to the west by the municipalities of Controguerra and Corropoli. Colonnella is subdivided into nine districts: the Centro capoluogo, Contrada Civita, Contrada Giardino, Contrada Riomoro, Contrada San Giovanni, Contrada San Martino, Contrada Sant'Angelo, Contrada Vallecupa, Contrada Vibrata, and Contrada Isola. Colonnella as described in the early 19th century: "Colonnella, is a land in Abruzzo Ultra, in the province of Teramo; in the diocese of Campli. It [is] in the Duchy of Atri, which is part of the Kingdom, seen high in the hills, two miles away from the sea, and eighteen from the city of Teramo. The air you breathe is very healthy and enjoys a surprising horizon, dominating by much of the Papal States (le Marche)."