History, art and culture

In Campli, art, history and culture come together in a combination of different times and styles, thanks to the countless witnesses of an important past, which today wants to tell the attentive and passionate visitor, leading him on an exciting journey into the history of art and culture of central Italy, from pre-Roman times to the Middle Ages, from the Renaissance to the Baroque.

The Petruzi’s treasure and the complex of San Pietro in Campovalano
The first settlements, found in the hamlet of Coccioli, date back to the 15th-14th century. B.C. Important evidence of the Pretuzi civilization were discovered between 1967 and 1999 in the hamlet of Campovalano. The 621 tombs found have yielded invaluable information about the life and culture of the Ager Praetuttianus populations. The Necropolis is therefore one of the most important archaeological sites in Abruzzo and its finds, funerary kits among the richest of pre-Roman civilizations, are kept in the exhibition halls of the National Archaeological Museum of Campli.
Evidence from the imperial era can be found in the nearby church of San Pietro with the remains of an early Christian sarcophagus by Aurelio Andronicus of Nicodemia (front part), an epigraph, perhaps belonging to a statue dedicated to Julius Caesar; part of the apse and other elements of reuse probably of an ancient Roman complex. The church of San Pietro, one of the oldest medieval religious complexes in the region, dates back to the 8th century was rebuilt in the 20th century, it preserves the narthex with two engraved medieval crosses and, inside, bas-reliefs of the Casauriense school, with interesting votive frescoes along the walls (XII-XV century).

From the middle-ages to the Farnese family
The historic center retains the appearance of a medieval mercantile village which, in the past, consisted of the suburbs of Nocella and Castelnuovo, enclosed in a single wall. The Porta Angioina di Castelnuovo represents a rare example of Abruzzo’s defense architecture dating back to the 13th century.
One of the oldest civic buildings in Abruzzo is the Farnese Palace also called the Parliament Palace, in Gothic style with Lombard and Umbrian-Marchesian influences, that nowadays is seat of the Town Hall. While the bell tower of the cathedral, Romanesque, dates back to the XII-XIII century; it is one of the so-called “The Four Bell Tower Brothers” (along with those of Atri, Teramo and Corropoli), attributed to Maestro Antonio from Lodi, who created the elegant summit prism, decorated with polychrome majolica (1470). In the main square of Nocella stands the high Melatino Tower erected in 1394 by Robert IV of Melatino for defense and sighting purposes. In the history of the town, one event in particular represents an important turning point and a change of era: in 1522 Campli was given as a dowry by Charles V to his natural daughter Margarita of Austria, whom he married in 1538, in second marriage, Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, becoming a Farnese possession until 1731. Thanks to the Farnese family, the city changed its appearance obtaining the title of city in 1600 and the seat of the Bishop, together with Ortona, from 1600 to 1818.

Noteworthy are the examples of stately homes embellished with loggias and arcades on the ground floor:

• Casa dello speziale with an elegant Loggia of the XVI century;
• Casa del Medico (XVI century) with double stone Loggia on small columns decorated with Latin mottos on the sixteenth century portal;
• Casa Petroncelli with a Loggia, a stairway form the 1400s, a Loggiato which shows the date 1488 on its front (Vittorio Emanuele II Square);
• Casa Lucque, with a gothic arches Portico dating back to 1449 (Corso Umberto I);
• Palazzo Rozzi (XVII-XVIII century).

Friezes and beautiful portals (13th-17th centuries) are visible in various streets of Campli, in the hamlet of Nocella and in the district of Castelnuovo.
Dating back to the 17th century, the Bishop's Palace in  Vittorio Emanuele II Square was built as the residence of the bishops of the diocese of Campli and Ortona a Mare (1600-1818). The beautiful ashlar portal shows a wooden door engraved with the coat of arms of the first Campli’s bishop, Mons. Alessandro Boccabarile.

The masterpieces of sacred art
The Santa Maria in Platea Catherdral contains countless works of art (14th-18th century). An important testimony of medieval Abruzzo’s painting is the cycle of frescoes in the Crypt, from the school of Giotto. Of great value are the wooden panel depicting the Madonna del Latte, attributed to Giacomo da Campli (XV) and the  Madonna Lignea by Silvestro de L'Aquila (1495), located in the shrine of the altar of the Blessed Sacrament, Renaissance, sculpted in stone by Sebastiano From Como, (1532), as is the precious sculpture of the “Madonna enthroned with Child” which surmounts the portal of the Cathedral attributed to Gagliardelli (XV century). Precious are the two panels with " the Saints" by Cola dell’Amatrice (1510, altar of the Blessed Sacrament); a copy of Raffaello's "Visitation"; a “Madonna with Child and Saints” by Giovan Battista Ragazzini from Ravenna (1577); an "Immaculate Conception and Saints" (18th century) from the school of Sebastiano Conca. Of great visual impact is the sumptuous wooden ceiling by Donato Di Teodoro, with the representation of the Baptism and Martyrdom of Saint Pancrazio and the Assunta (18th century).
An important artistic and spiritual value is contained in the canvases and frescoes in the Sanctuary of the “Scala Santa” (1772). In the stairway, six paintings depict the "Passion of Christ" through iconographic sequences that retrace the story of the Gospels; the staircase ends in front of a "Deposition" by the Teramo painter Vincenzo Baldati, located on the grate of the Sancta Santorum Chapel. In the descent staircase (symbol of the faithful regenerated by divine Grace), two frescoes, “Saint Elena ”and“ Pope Clemente XIV ”and four“ Medallions ”which represent the joy of the Resurrection of Christ.

 
In Castelnuovo it is worth visiting the 15th century frescoed aedicule attributed to Giacomo da Campli, kept in the small church of “Santa Maria delle Piane” (19th century). On the hill of Saint Lucia stands the Ex Convent of Saint Bernardino, the oldest of the Franciscan Reform of the Observance, built by Saint Giovanni form Capestrano in 1449. In the lunette of the portal you can see a fifteenth-century fresco depicting the "Madonna with the Child between Saint Francesco of Assisi and Saint Bernardino of Siena ”, attributed to Matteo form Campli. In the refectory there are seventeenth-century frescoes by the Polish Sebastiano Majeski. From the Franciscan complex comes a late Gothic polyptych of the fifteenth century, attributed to Giacomo da Campli; now kept in the Civic Art Gallery of Teramo. Between Campli and Castelnuovo stands the Ex Convent of Saint Onofrio, dating back to 1489-1510. The refectory houses a remarkable cycle of frescoes (15th-16th century). On the walls: "Holy Martyrs", "Blessed", "Scenes from the Life of St. Onofrio", "Scenes from the Life of Saint Benedetto", an "Annunciation", a "Last Supper", "Saint Scolastica ”and“ Saint Michele the Archangel ". At the entrance an Abruzzo landscape with a city, perhaps Campli. Under the fresco of the "SS. Trinity ”the monogram“ FSC ”(“ Fratres Sancti Coelestini ”). The convent will house the future Museum of Sacred Art.