Overview
Nestled in the beautiful Orta Valley Regional Nature Reserve, the beautiful village of Bolognano, one of the centers in the Pescara area of the Maiella National Park, will hold more than one archaeological and naturalistic surprise for you.
Bolognano has medieval origins and, for a long time, it was under the Abbey of S. Clemente a Casauria. It is best known for one of the most internationally important Neolithic sanctuaries, the Cave of the Pigeons. This is an extensive cavity used for a variety of purposes, for instance, during the Neolithic period, rituals and sacrifices dedicated to Mother Earth were practiced. It was also used for capturing and breeding pigeons.
You can admire the numerous artifacts found there in various archaeological museums in the region (including outside Abruzzo), while waiting to be able to visit this incredible natural cathedral, which is currently closed for security reasons.
2 kilometres far from Bolognano, you will find the Grotta Scura in the Madonna del Monte district, to be explored in absolute tranquillity. Reservations are required with a guided tour at the park's information centre, located in the small square at the 'entrance to the village. The cavern has a wide entrance, which is easy to reach on foot. Access is free in the first two rooms, then narrows into dark cavities closed by a gate, to be explored only with experienced cavers or with seductive imagination. Here several rock paintings have been found, generically attributed to the Metal Age: creative signs of humans who, from the earliest social aggregations, found protection, shelter and warmth there.
After that, go to visit the "Officine" of Bolognano, the industrial archaeology complex, formerly Montecatini, which arose in the early 1900s in Piano d'Orta, where numerous warehouses built with different materials, now crystallized in abandonment, are waiting to be reinterpreted and transformed.
And this is the "old part”. As for the new one, you can find it in the village, along the narrow streets of the hamlet where, with an environmental and cultural redevelopment project, the Houses of Art, Music and Criticism have sprung up, alongside permanent art creations in the most diverse places. "The Place of Nature" and the "Paradise Plantation" conceived by German painter, sculptor and performance artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) is an 800-square-meter hypogeum on two levels to host conventions, concerts, lectures, screenings, exhibitions and performances.
Time to get your teeth into something. "Tajarille e fasciule," sheep "callara," and fried pizza await you for lunch or dinner. Make your choice.
What else to see:
- The Church of S. Antonio Abate
- The Church of S. Maria Entroterra
- The Durini Palace
- The Church of S. Maria del Monte
