Guardiagrele
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 Guardiagrele


Guardiagrele (Guardia Graelis) is an old town in front of the Maiella mountains and its name comes from the time it became the sentinel (guard) watching the old town of Grele in the plain below.
 Gabriele D’Annunzio described it as “the Terrace of  Abruzzo” for the wonderful view of the Maiella mountains and the Adriatic sea you can admire from there.

Santa Maria Maggiore
(Foto D'Angelo)

 
 
In this small town the refined goldsmith’s art and wrought iron working has been handed on from father to son over the centuries.
 Artistically speaking, the most valuable monument in the town is the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. It was built on a pre-existing temple dedicated to Apollo.
 
 

Sise delle Monache
(Foto D'Angelo)

  
 The church was completely built with white stones from the Maiella mountains. Its façade is almost completely covered by the quadrangular bell tower which dates back to the thirteenth century. At the base of the bell tower there is a fine ogival portal which dates back to the beginning of the fifteenth century. In the lunette above the portal there is a sculptural group of the Coronation of the Virgin among four angels (under restoration at the moment).

 
On the left side of the façade, over a niche with the statue of John the baptist (sixteenth century), there is a clock and the coat-of-arms of the town.
After the violent earthquake in 1706 the interior of the church was completely transformed. Its original structure can be seen in what later became the crypt of the eighteenth-century church above. Inside the crypt you can visit the Museo del Duomo (The Cathedral Museum) where there is a collection of precious liturgical objects and, above all, the famous fragments of Nicola da Guardiagrele’s Processional Cross in gold-plated silver, stolen in 1979 and partly recovered in 1982.

06/06/2006


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