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CARUNCHIO
Not far away from Vasto,
defended on a hill at 465 meters of height, Carunchio
rises on the Treste torrent's valley nearby the National Park
of the Majella. The name derives from its vocation to agriculture:
Carunca, variation of the word Carruca, means in fact plough.
Historically the country appears for the first time in 1173
in a papal bull that defines the borders of the diocese of
Chieti and includes in it the “ecclesia sancte
Marie de Carunchi”. It seems confirmed that
the village was found in a different position and that the
inhabitants moved upstream in order to defend themselves from
the continuous Saracene invasions happened
during the Middle Ages.
Carunchio was then Avalos', Marinelli's and Caracciolo's fief.
Of the medieval fief remain the town-walls and two doors:
Porta Coluccia and Porta Nocicchia. The visit winds for the
alleys of the village in order to arrive to the Church
of S. Giovanni Batista, with a baroque organ dating
back to 1600 and S. Maria del Purgatorio
('500, then restored in XVIII sec.). Interesting also the
palaces of Carunchio: Palazzo Castelli, that
represents the primary nucleus of the original medieval village
and Palazzo Turdò.
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