Zi Nicola In Spoltore

01/06/2025: A monument that stands on the remains of a large Roman villa, inhabited until late antiquity, which between the 6th and 7th centuries became a castrum of those Byzantines who had retained control of the nearby port of Aternum (Pescara) as a fundamental landing place and intermediate port between the capital of the Exarchate Ravenna and Constantinople, and who clearly created the first nucleus of the historic Torre Alex (from Alessandro Valignano, one of the lords of the Valignano family of Cepagatti in the 17th century). The tower was consolidated in the Lombard era as a control point of a strategic road junction at the crossroads between the S.S. Picena Aprutina and the routes that went up to Forca di Penne and the Aquilano, and which from the 11th-12th centuries became the seat of the lords of the fiefdom of the Norman, Swabian and Angevin eras of Cepagatti, and then passed from the 15th century to the Valignano family and finally to the current owners. The first archaeological investigations by the Superintendency date back to the 1970s and continued between 1998 and 2011 in Piazza S. Rocco, bringing to light important evidence of the Roman era preserved in the City Council Hall. The restoration of the Castle returns to the public the so-called “sala delle cisterne” (cistern room), an authentic and rare Roman cistern 22 meters long and 4 meters wide, as well as the “sala del grano” (grain room), 340 square meters large on the top floor of the monument with a panoramic view of the Pescara valley. The restoration of the Marcantonio Castle, begun in 2008, represents a “place in history” and the over 2000 square meters spread over 4 levels offer the possibility of hosting particularly evocative events. Unfortunately, it is now in decline due to problems with the owners and is closed. Too bad...

18/05/2025: Too bad it was closed, beautiful to visit