Cepagatti, Pescara, Abruzzo Region, Italy

🇮🇹 Cepagatti (locally Cipahàttë) is a comune (municipality) and town in the Province of Pescara in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

Geography The territory is predominantly hilly, and is located on the northern shore of Val Pescara. The municipal headquarters is 145 meters above sea level but the heights vary from 100 to 175 meters above sea level. Cepagatti is crossed by the Pescara river and the Nora stream. It is bordered to the north-west by Pianella, to the south by Rosciano, to the east by Chieti and San Giovanni Teatino and to the north-east by Spoltore.

History The first mention of Cepagatti is in the Catalogus baronum of 1147 as Zepagattum, then Cippagattum in 1273. According to one hypothesis, the toponym would derive from Abruzzo cipaiàttë, a term indicating Roman garlic, composed of the two words derived from the Latin cepa (onion) and cattus (cat), typical in the dialect of the area to indicate plants whose sugar bulb replaces the onion. Archaeological remains found over the years testify to the frequentation of the area by Vestini and Romans, and in particular the origins of the town, which will thicken in the Middle Ages, date back to the site of an ancient Roman villa, fortified during the barbarian invasions and transformed into a real castle, which became known as Marcantonio castle, during the Lombard Also to the Lombards is attributed the construction of the Alex Tower, a sighting building placed on a road junction connected to the port traffic of Aternum.

Over the centuries the town knew numerous lords and dominations, and in 1458 the Chietina Valignani family gained possession of it, starting the work of economic exploitation of the territory with deforestation and granting of land to the peasants. 6]

Monuments and places of interest Church of St. Lucia Virgin and Martyr The church was built between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and features a neoclassical facade with a large Maiella stone pediment.

Church of San Rocco Dating back to 1657 and part of the Marcantonio castle complex, the small church was commissioned by Olimpia Valignani, mother of the Marquis of Cepagatti Alessandro, as a thank you to the saint for the end of the plague of 1656. The brick facade has at its top an aedicule with a bell, and has a rose window and the coat of arms of the Valignani family. Inside the building shows neo-gothic characters.

Alex Tower The tower, which bears the name of Alessandro Valignani, feudal lord of the country since 1632, is the main reference point of the country, and over time has always represented the place of power; its walls are about three meters thick, a measure that roughly corresponding to the ten Roman feet suggests late ancient origins of the structure, probably linked to the Byzantine garrison Built on the remains of an existing Roman villa, in its basement there are numerous archaeological remains of the different stratifications of the ancient and late medieval sites.

Castello Marcantonio Starting from the structure of the Tower Alex developed over the centuries a more articulated defensive system, connected to the settlement that had in the meantime formed inside in the contours of the Roman villa, and the castle was built using Roman materials of reuse in the early medieval age. Transformed in the nineteenth century into a noble residence, it preserves inside the cross vaults and the shapes of the defensive structure, and in its basements there are archaeological remains of a cistern and other Roman structures and subsequent early medieval and medieval stratifications. The facade is decorated with presumably 18th-century majolica. Along with the Alex Tower, the castle complex underwent extensive restoration work in 2008.

Culture From 1985 to 1996 the local artist Mira Cancelli, with the authorization and financing of the municipality, enriched with his students the alleys of the historic centre of Cepagatti, creating a characteristic series of colorful drawings, having as their theme the stories and characters of the city. Set within the walls of the houses inhabited by the citizens of Cepagatti, the drawings offer a unique scenario, which tells of the Lombard Cepagatti, medieval, of the noble Antonia Profeta who married the Marquis Filippo Valignani di Chieti, and life in the ancient and almost contemporary village, with the typical activities of the Abruzzo towns.

Some drawings, after 20 years of permanence, have been restored by the artist herself, with her students, from 2006 to today, and still need maintenance in some places, especially in those that tell the Cepagattesi characters who took part in the Riserment movement.

On August 16, the Palio di San Rocco is held.

Economy Cepagatti's economy is essentially based on agriculture, which has always been a source of income. There are many olive plantations that allow, together with neighboring municipalities, to provide an olive oil of excellent quality. Stretches of wheat and vineyards characterize the remaining territory. Probably Due to the demographic increase, Cepagatti is also expanding at an industrial level.