Campo di Giove

A temple dedicated to the father of the gods, the origin of which remains a mystery, was built around 300BC at the beginning of the Via di Coccia (between l’Ara and Il Tescino).

One thing we know for sure is that the entire area, turned into a military encampment during the summer (remember that 300BC falls between the Second and Third Samnite Wars), was called Campus Jovis.

Rather than the “pagi”, the shepherds preferred huts that could be transported from one field to the next; the grazing was now done not by large migrating flocks but by the few non-migratory sheep remaining that were needed to sustain life.

When they were not frantically fleeing the mountains in terror, the local people quickly rediscovered their old Italic virtues, like in 937 when the Paeligni and the Marsi joined forces to surprise and defeat a group of loot-bearing Hungarian soldiers in a canyon (5).

From the 6th to the 10th centuries, the small houses and huts on the plateau of Campo di Giove served as a refuge for the few natives and the many who had been forced to flee or move around.

These bloody incursions prompted, particularly among religious institutions, the noble challenge of building walled fortresses and safe havens away from roaming vassals, protecting against raids.

And so, just a stone’s throw from the old temple of Jupiter, a new Christian community was founded where the monks from San Vincenzo al Volturno would teach religious and civic duties.

The church of Sant’Angelo in Cansano, which appears in the 1183 papal bull of Pope Lucius IIII (9), offers evidence of a Lombard community in our area.

These people gathered in and protected by the Castello formed a fief that yielded 20 ounces of gold and was therefore taxed with one cavalryman and two servants (squires or foot soldiers).

Right at the entrance to the beech forests that line the slopes of Monte Amaro, in the contrada that today still bears the name of Sant’Antonino, in the countryside of Campo di Giove, close to a fresh spring located 1,530 m above sea level.

ne XII , Bartolomeo from Campo di Giove, on behalf of the Sulmona Chapter, took action against the local archpriest for the payment of the annual rent of two carlini for the Sant’Antonino church (12).

And, just like so many other medieval fortresses, the Sant’Antonino Convent communicated with the Sulmona valley and its overlooking villages, such as Prezza, by way of light signals.

If the Sant’Antonino Convent existed in 1255, it was probably built during the three years (1246–49) when Fra Pietro lived at Santo Spirito in Maiella, sheltering from the masses so he could peacefully - at least temporarily - pursue his anchorite vocation.

It was transferred by the Celestines to the Abbot of Santa Maria in Pulsano on Mount Gargano in exchange for San Pietro di Vallebona in Manoppello.

Next to the spring from which fresh water still gushes, the only things that remain are a few fragments of the old walls, but the enchanting location lies just off the new, scenic Macchie di Secina road, which has enabled it to emerge as one of the tourist hotspots of the western Maiella.

In 1420, Braccio pursued Caldora in order to recover the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies for Joanna II, and it was right here in Campo di Giove that the Abruzzi surrendered.

Travelling through Marche and into the Valley of Pescara, he passed through the Valle Peligna and abandoned it; he intimidated Sulmona, forcing it to adopt his magistrates and guards in the name of the Queen; he laid siege to Pacentro, which duly surrendered, and took the rugged roads of the Maiella to hurry into Caldora-controlled Campo di Giove, which attempted in vain to defend itself and was burned.

In addition to the county of Popoli, Onofrio Gaspare Cantelmo owned the lands of Forca (Furcae Pelignorum), il Pesco (Pescocostanzo), Pacentro and Campo di Giove, which then returned to the Caldoras (Antonio) until 1463.

In that year, however, he lost all his fiefs when he rebelled against Alfonso’s successor Ferdinand I to pursue John, Duke of Anjou, who had gone to France to take back the Kingdom.

A document from 1755 (27) petitions against the custom of the people of Cansano and Campo di Giove of loudly and publicly celebrating the resurrection of Christ at Easter.

Popular memory recalls that Vincenzo Ricciardi, irked by Primiano’s relationship with a Palena woman called Giovannella, ordered the young man to leave her for a girl from Campo di Giove.

He took all his animals and threw them off a Maiella cliff known as the Pesce di Baccalà; even more of a stir was caused by the assault on Palazzo Ricciardi (now the municipal headquarters of Campo di Giove), in which Primiano led around sixty bandits, including the infamous Ermenegildo Bucci and Nunzio Tamburrini, who succumbed to a barrage from members of the Ricciardi family and their servants.

In spite of the frequent armed robberies, kidnappings, blackmailing of squires and murders, the local people were fond of the bandits and supported their struggle.

Campo di Giove during the Second World War There are several examples of locals fiercely resisting the tyranny and violence of fascism and Nazism.

12.10.1943 Local men take shelter in the mountains to avoid sweeps, while some German troops patrol the residential area and spread panic among the population.

21.10.1943 The SS returns, the men are rounded up and put in front of the firing squad, the podestà is arrested and imprisoned pending execution and the parish priest Don Virgilio Tornano is interrogated again.

Some locals head to Monte Coccia and fly a bedsheet as a white flag to signal to the Allies coming from the east of the Maiella that it was safe to advance.

We would like to sincerely thank Prof Mauro d’Amico, author of the book “Campo di Giove -I 38 Paesi del Parco Nazionale della Maiella” (pp.