Overview
Civitaquana offers you 550 metres of beauty, in the province of Pescara, straight as a spindle on a hill, which secularly controls the valley of the Nora River.
From this position, the Maiella massif, the Mother Mountain of the Abruzzi people, appears in all its shades, embellishing the picture-postcard landscape.
The village's territory is ancient, having appeared in the year 883, when part of the village was owned by the Benedictines of Sant'Angelo di Galbanico (near Loreto) in the County of Penne. It was named Civitas Quana and later Aquana, interpreted as "city of waters", which was somehow connected directly or indirectly with hydraulic works, large cisterns, whose traces have emerged under the plain of Colle Quinzio. Also found outside its territory are ancient underground aqueducts from the Roman period.
The castle, which originally was part of the large neighboring abbeys, was under the control of two feudal lords of "cry": Sordello da Goito, poet and troubadour, made famous by the portrait Dante Alighieri sketched in Cantos VI, VII and VIII of Purgatory. He had it in 1269 from Carlo I d'Angiò. Much later, it was owned by the Leognani Fieramosca family, the family of the famous Hector, the captain who led the Italian army in the 1503 Disfida di Barletta against the French armies.
In the village, be sure not only to admire the 18th-century Palazzo Leognani Castriota, but also to visit the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, founded by the Benedictines in the second half of the 12th century, with a Romanesque layout of Lombard matrix.
Inside you can find three naves divided by terracotta pillars, an interesting 12th-century relief depicting a saint, whose hands are portrayed one with the palm and the other with the back, a fresco depicting St. Martin and the aristocratic chapel dedicated to San Rocco. Along the left side of the church stands a massive bell tower, whose lower part is made of stone (dating from 1463) and upper part from the 1700s.
From the adjacent belvedere, see the endless panorama that exposes you to the Apennines, in dazzling form.
You are in the land of arrosticini, whose tradition traces right back to Villa Celiera, in the province of Pescara; therefore, a dish of delicious chunks of roasted mutton, the so-called "rustelle", is waiting for you.
You're also in the land of maccheroni alla chitarra, whose tool for making it comes from the province of Chieti (San Martino sulla Marrucina) and it was invented by the area's "setacciari" (who went from house to house fixing the tools of peasant civilization). This was made possible by the introduction into Italy of steel or steel wire, popularized by the Germans. Its purpose was simple: to make it easier for housewives to cut the "tajarelle”.
Taste them seasoned with meat sauce and thank those craftsmen, great workers.