Historic Sites

The Port of San Giovanni di Battista

Standing today as a weathered stone gateway with wooden doors, the Porta di San Giovanni marks what remains of a monastic presence once rooted on the ridge in Gessopalena. The site is located along the ancient road between Gesso and Casoli (the Via del Peligna), a route that historically tied the Aventino valley to the upland passes.

The monastery’s foundation is recorded in a remarkable act dated 2 September 1333, preserved in the Digestum Scripturarum (Vol. II). On that day, three brothers of Gesso—Mastro Andrea, Abbot Giovanni, and the notary Eduardo, sons of the late Sir Thomas—donated land at Fonte della Murata to Friar Roberto da Salle, procurator of the Monastery of St. Peter Confessor. Their gift was explicitly for the construction of a new monastic house “in honor of God and Blessed Peter Confessor,” and was made with the formal consent of Theobald di Letto, Lord of the Castle of Gesso.

A host of judges, clergy, and prominent citizens witnessed the act. To seal the donation, Friar Alessandro di Castiglione, envoy of Friar Roberto, laid a stone on the site, symbolically inaugurating the new monastery.

Historical Context

The founding of San Giovanni in 1333 reflects the shifting balance between diocesan authority and Benedictine monastic power across the Abruzzo. Churches and lands in Gessopalena—including Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Maria dei Calderari, and Sant’Egidio—were often contested between the Diocese of Chieti and various monastic ordersThe Theatine Episcopate and the…. San Giovanni, situated along a vital road to Casoli, was part of this ecclesiastical geography: both a spiritual institution and a strategic marker of presence and prestige.

The Surviving Gate

Today, only the stone port of San Giovanni survives, a fragment of a once larger complex. Its heavy timber and weathered masonry remain as a visible threshold to centuries of faith and politics.

Together with the Nazi Memorial at the Paese Vecchio and the ruins of other churches, the Port of San Giovanni testifies to Gessopalena’s layered history, where medieval devotion and modern memory stand side by side.

The Nazi Memorial of the Paese Vecchio

At the far edge of the Paese Vecchio outcrop, overlooking the Aventine valley, stands a stone monument inscribed in memory of the destruction wrought during the Second World War. When Gessopalena was razed and its people deported, this marker was placed to honor those who suffered and to remind future generations of the cost of oppression.

"The wind of these valleys,
the snow of these mountains,
the sun and the nights,
recalling themselves in the ruins
of these deserted hamlets,
may renew in memory
the cry for vengeance,
and give an example
against destruction,
against extermination,
which the Nazi oppressor
and the Fascist ally
imposed,
so that it may not collapse from the ruins
of broken and burned roofs,
every household, every human hope,
every bond, every human trust,
through pure deportation."

Sant’Egidio (Monastery & District)

Sant’Egidio stands among the earliest ecclesiastical anchors of Gessopalena’s paese vecchio. Founded under Benedictine influence and historically linked to the Terra Sancti Benedicti (Montecassino), the site formed a paired landscape with the ridge-top arx (castle), defending routes from the Adriatic and structuring settlement on the slope.

Extent & terrain. Notarial and parish evidence indicate that Sant’Egidio’s holdings were not confined to the church precinct alone: they reached from the old town ridge down into Valle Arcioni, where boundaries touch the valley floor and the Torrente Cesa. This vertical span—arx to watercourse—reflects the classic Benedictine pairing of sanctuary, road, and mill/fields.

A house “adjoining the Abbey.” A translated act concerning Egidio Larcinese records:

“Egidio has a house, in property, in the district of Saint Egidio, that adjoins with the Abbey of Saint Egidio, with goods of Tibertio Melchiorre, with a small river, and with public street.”
While the original notary citation remains to be re-identified, the topographic markers—abbey, neighboring holdings, a “small river,” and a public street—fit the Sant’Egidio edge of the paese vecchio above Valle Arcioni. The “small river” is most plausibly the Torrente Cesa below.

Seventeenth-century transaction. In 1670, Egidio Larcinese sold a house attached to the monastery of Sant’Egidio, corroborating the physical adjacency between lay properties and the religious complex and illustrating how families like the Larcinese, Tiberino, and Mancini navigated ecclesiastical terrain, dowries, and patronage in this quarter.

Where to find it. Approaching along Via Castello, Sant’Egidio is met before the Largo del Principe and the climb toward the castle. From here, paths descend toward Valle Arcioni and the Cesa, tracing the historical footprint of the monastery’s lands from ridge to stream.

Research notes: Benedictine ties are consistent with Montecassino’s documented presence in the area; tithe and notarial records situate Sant’Egidio within the broader Benedictine geography of Gessopalena. The Cesa identification follows local hydrography and boundary phrases typical of Abruzzese notarial acts. The precise notary book and folio for the Egidio passage will be added upon re-verification.

Historic Sites of Gessopalena

The Port of San Giovanni di Battista

Historical Context

The Surviving Gate

The Nazi Memorial of the Paese Vecchio

Sant’Egidio (Monastery & District)

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