Its name in medieval Latin was Castrum Properi ("Waystation Fortress"), which name was recorded as early as 1016 as the property of Girardo, son of Roccone.

In 1269 the Angevin ruler Charles I of Naples granted Popoli as a fief in the Cantelmo family, who held it, with its ducal title, until 1749.

Unfortunately, it was a day that rations were being distributed to town at the city hall, and there were long lines of women and children, many of whom were killed or wounded.

Following World War II, the Italian Republic awarded the town of Popoli with the "Silver Medal of Civil Merit" (Medaglia d'argento al merito civile): "Crucial center, occupied by German troops the day after the armistice, was subjected to repeated and violent bombardments which caused the deaths of ninety-one civilians and the destruction of nearly all of the public property.

The whole population knew how to react, with dignity and courage, to the horrors of war and to face, with the return of peace, the difficult works of moral and material reconstruction."