What is Loreto Aprutino known for?

Producer of DOP Aprutino Pescarese, part of the Golden Triangle of Abruzzo olive oil with Pianella and Moscufo. Encaustic Judgment scene at Santa Maria in Piano, with souls crossing a hair-thin bridge over boiling pitch, commissioned by the Aquinas family. Acerbo collection covering five centuries of Castelli ceramics, the most prestigious majolica school in Abruzzo.

Where is Loreto Aprutino?

Loreto Aprutino is a comune in the province of Pescara, Abruzzo region of Italy, about 26 kilometers from Pescara.

Abruzzo · Pescara

Loreto Aprutino

A hilltop townin the Aprutino olive country, with a fourteenth-century Judgment fresco and a Castelli majolica collection.

26 km / 16 mi

Nearest hub (Pescara)

7,140

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Loreto Aprutino sitson a hill twenty kilometers inland from Pescara, in the so-called Golden Triangle of Abruzzo olive oil that it shares with Pianella and Moscufo. Pre-Roman necropoleis at Colle-Fiorano and Farina-Cardito show a settlement long before the medieval town. The Romanesque-Gothic church of Santa Maria in Piano, built around 1280, holds the Giudizio particolare delle anime, a wall fresco in encaustic technique that shows souls crossing a bridge thin as a human hair, falling into a river of boiling pitch if not saved; the Aquinas family commissioned the cycle. Castello Chiola dominates the ridge above the town, restored after Italian unification in 1863. The olive-oil tradition runs to the fourth century BC; the local DOP is Aprutino Pescarese, and the town's Museo dell'Olio explains the chain from grove to bottle. The Acerbo Castelli ceramics collection covers majolica from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.

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Gallery

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Known for

Chiesa di Santa Maria in Piano
Church from 1280 with the encaustic fresco Giudizio particolare delle anime, the bridge-of-hair Judgment commissioned by the Aquinas family.
Castello Chiola
Medieval castle on the highest point of the ridge, restored after 1863, now a hotel and still the dominant skyline feature.
Museo Acerbo delle Ceramiche di Castelli
Collection of Castelli majolica from the fifteenth to nineteenth century, the most prestigious ceramic tradition of Abruzzo.
Museo dell'Olio
Olive-oil museum walking through the chain from grove to mill to bottle, in a town that has pressed oil since the fourth century BC.
Necropoli di Colle-Fiorano e Farina-Cardito
Pre-Roman burial sites attesting to settlement of the hill long before the medieval town took shape.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June is the green window in the Aprutino hills, with mild evenings and active olive groves. September and October bring the harvest and the new-oil season; tasting tours run through both months. July and August are hot at 290 meters, and visitors usually move between the cool nave of Santa Maria in Piano and the shaded courtyards of the centro. November through March is quiet. The new oil is in bottles by Christmas, and the town turns to its winter calendar of mill visits and tastings.