Pescasseroli

Sister cities

• Candela
• Foggia
• Castellane

History

The domain of the Borrello Family in the 11th century, Pescasseroli passed as a 'sub-fief' of the Di Sangro family. After the fall of the Swabians, it came under the Aquinas family. In 1349, when Adenolfo II Aquinas died under the ruins of the castle of Alvito, it passed to a branch of the Counts of Loreto. In 1461, the barony of Pescasseroli was inherited by Antonella d'Aquino, Marquise of Pescara. At the end of the sixteenth century, the estate was sold to Giovan Giacomo di Sangro, who died in 1607. Put up for auction, it is recorded as having a succession of different owners until 1705, when for the price of 15,770 ducats, it was acquired by the Massa family of Sorrento. They were the last barons of Pescasseroli before the advent of the new nineteenth-century bourgeoisie, in this case exemplified by the Sipari family. The Pescasseroli-Candela sheep route or "tratturo" started in imperial times as a military route used by the Roman legions. In the Middle Ages it became a route for sheep grazing migration from the higher and colder mountains of Abruzzo to the lower pastures of Puglia. With a distance of it is the third longest "tratturo" in southern Italy.