A quiet grace
FANO ADRIANO
SPECIAL FANO ADRIANO
Text by Sandro Galantini
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Photo by Giancarlo Malandra
A QUIET GRACE caressed by the sight of the Gran Sasso, the small mountain town conquers for its cleanliness, enchants with its magical atmosphere and seduces with its reassuring beauty.
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ee Fano Adriano and fall in love with it takes a moment. It also happened to the famous botanist Michele Tenore almost two centuries ago. In fact, when he arrived in 1830, the Neapolitan academic was so impressed by the environment that he believed for a moment that he was not in the mountains of Abruzzo but in one of the flirtatious villages of Valais or Savoy. It must be because of that quiet grace of his that he married a reassuring cleanliness. Or because from the 745 metres above sea level of this village, as airy as a window sill on a quietly perfect setting, you seem to be caressed by the breath of the Gran Sasso. Its nearby, majestic peak feels like a looming glance, ready to surprise paternally rather than severely. And maybe it could be that a Valentine’s Day accomplice, the patron saint of the place and - as we know - of lovers, beats the heart. In any case, Fano Adriano, whose beautiful position Enrico
Abbate celebrated in the famous Guide to Abruzzo of 1903 and Luigi Bologna defined as “a very pleasant place” in his Tourist Itineraries of 1924, bewitches thanks to the natural grace it possessed. One strolls here with serenity, savouring the sense of reconciliation with the world and with oneself while time seems to be passing by, almost shortening the hours in order to expand them. Here every step has its right measure, the good pause. And it allows to reveal the detail that surprises together with the many signs of its ancient history. The origins of Fano Adriano, in fact, are very remote. The toponym incontrovertibly reveals its Roman imprint, with that Fanum indicating the presence of a pagan temple. Hadrian was intrinsically dedicated to the Spanish Roman emperor by birth, but he is said to have come from a family originally from Atri-Teramo, which received special divine honours during his life. According to another and perhaps more convincing thesis based on the appellative Triganum or Trianum recurring in the most ancient documents, it would allude to a “sanctuary” raised near a place called with that name,
hence the words suggested Troianum and then Fano Troiano, toponym recurring in the acts from the seventeenth century until at least 1870. Developed in the republican period and a prosperous centre in the imperial one, the hamlet was later sadly involved in the violent raids of the Saracens who from 832 to 914 bloodied the lands of Abruzzo. Risen to new life, the town is mentioned in the Bull issued in 1117 by Bishop Oderisio, abbot of San Giovanni in Venere next to Rocca San Giovanni. A century later Fano must have been endowed with a solid physiognomy if it is able to express a notable notary, such as Giacomo Giovanni who in 1258, in Teramo, was an active part in the stipulation of an act. The current name dates back at least to 1454, the year in which King Alfonso of Aragon confirmed to Giacomantonio Orsini, as Giovanni’s heir, the possession of his paternal feud. And Fano Adriano is still the name that appears in 1526 when, with the solemn investiture of Emperor Charles V, the Hispanic Ferrante Alarçon y Mendoza, undisputed lord of the Sicilian Valley, became feudal lord of the town.
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SPECIAL FANO ADRIANO
Opening: view of Fano Adriano. In this page: Church of Ss. Pietro and Paolo. To the right: Church of Ss. Pietro e Paolo. Indoor. High altar from 1605.
THE CHURCH OF S. PIETRO E PAOLO: AN INTRIGUING TOUR IN THE CENTURIES THROUGH ART, HISTORY AND SPIRITUALITY. To gather in its palm the centuries passed, watching over the past and present of Fano Adriano, is the church of S. Pietro e Paolo, of which we have the first news and explicit mention -as S. Pietro - in 1324. Elevated in 1494 as an archpriest site, around 1550 the church was enlarged to its present proportions and in 1658 it was equipped with a new bell tower, 24 metres high to replace another pre-existing one with a sail, which supports two bells: the “grossa” of 1760 and one, more recent, in 1908. The building stands on the main squa-
re closing one of its sides, like an unexpected guest, and immediately makes the heart kind with its structural simplicity. The facade is in fact rectangular and classical, exemplary on a model from L’Aquila or in any case recurring in many churches in Abruzzo and Umbria. But as you get closer, you realize that the sobriety, underlined by the warm rusticity of the sandstone blocks, is like a deliberate attempt to remove any haughtiness out of modesty. The magnificent portal, made of precious local stone and on which the date 1693 is sculpted together with the castle with three towers, symbol of Fano, bears in the lunette majolica tiles of Castelli attributable to Tito Barnabei that help to give the whole architrave complex a refined elegance. The central rose window and painted glass windows add a further touch of beauty.
However, it is through the entrance that the sacred building, in the shape of a Latin cross with the aisles divided by round arches resting on robust quadrangular pillars, reserves its precious surprises. On the left side, from the beginning, the centuries unfold with the stoup of 1636, the kneeler of 1702 as well as the stone basin with a mutilated inscription on the upper edge and under the middle cord, together with the shredded coat of arms of Fano accompanied by an F and a T (for Fano Triganum probably), another inscription with the dates 1335 and 1569. This is the Fonte della Cannalecchia, dear to the people of Fano and whose story is singular. It is believed that the artefact was created as a stoup or baptismal font of a church built in 1335.
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SPECIAL FANO ADRIANO
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Once the sacred building disappeared, the stone basin was used to collect the water, celebrated centuries ago as healthy and still diuretic, from a fountain - the Cannalecchia - which then as now stands on the southern edge of the town, on the route to Intermesoli. For centuries the splendid basin remained there until, replaced by an admirable copy made in 1973 by Vittorio Valente, it found its rightful place back in the church. A few more steps and the eye meets other jewels, the ones that make S. Pietro e Paolo a fascinating concentration of art and history. The dazzling high altar of 1605, in precious and finely worked wood, of Bernini inspiration, makes the pupils dilate immediately.
On the left: Church Ss. Peter and Paul. Inside. Baroque Altarpiece. XVI century. On this page, in high: Church Ss. Pietro and Paolo. Bezel Bottom: Church Ss. Pietro and Paolo. Inside. Aquasantiera (baptismal bowl) seventeenthcentury and basin of Cannalecchia.
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SPECIAL FANO ADRIANO
Left, top: Organ of 1757; bottom left, Church Ss. Peter and Paul. Inside. Wooden Crucifix (XVI century) On the right: Church Ss. Pietro and Paolo. Inside. 17th century frescos. and below: Church Ss. Pietro and Paolo. Hand-Painted glass window
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A true baroque triumph with its inhaled columns, foliage, festoons, twin spirals in a single block. It is crowned by four other wooden altars, all from the 17th century. Wonderful the sixteenth-century polychrome wooden Crucifix. The confessionals and the gilded and painted wooden cupboard are also beautiful. Fascinating are the sixteenth and seventeenth century frescoes that emerge here and there, including the Triumph of the Immaculate Conception, believed to be the work of the Ravenna painters Giovan Battista and Francesco Ragazzini. The central nave is dominated by a sumptuous wooden coffered ceiling with rosette inserts dating back to 1608. Also precious is the organ built in 1757 by Adriano Federi or Fedri, a famous master organ builder from Atria but of Camerino origin, on which is engraved the Latin motto Còncine dum résono, me reticente sile, that is “Sing with me while I spread the sound, but be silent while silent I am”.
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SPECIAL FANO ADRIANO
On this page: view of Fano Adriano. On the page on the right: Piazza del Coro. (the Choir’s Square)
THE CORNERS OF THE “PEARL OF THE GRAN SASSO” AND ITS ILLUSTRIOUS SONS If for some it is the “pearl of the Gran Sasso”, for others it is the “little Switzerland”. In both cases it alludes to Fano Adriano’s cleanliness and flirtatious elegance, which really has the ability to mysteriously surprise anyone who visits it. Fascinatingly collected with a fist, as if to give itself comfort and security, the village seduces with its houses in hard stone, or in warm and malleable sandstone, clinging along narrow streets or overlooking delightful little squares and more umbrian widening. As in the evocative Piazza Prato, with an austere tower-house guarding the most extreme corner and, in the background, a sce-
nic portal connected to what remains of a complex probably dating back to the XV-XVI century. Or in Piazzetta del Popolo, the heart of the village’s oldest building fabric, where in the workmanship of the houses, often bearing the Bernardinian coat of arms, one can recognise the suggestions exerted on the local workers by the French medieval builders. Later traces, from the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, can be seen everywhere, both in the “de su” and “de jà” houses, as the elders say in their sharp dialect, recalling a time when the village was originally distinct from a ditch in two nuclei, one upstream the other downstream, which came to settle in the early twentieth century. And it is pleasant to come across the signs of the past: a carved sign, a sturdyly shaped window made of local stone, the 18th
century phrase fixed on the portal of a dwelling by its builder or the archaic and rustic ornament of a door. The town hall itself, which began as Casa del Fascio and was built in 1935 to a design by Gaetano Minnucci, reusing the walls of the fifteenth-century church of the Cona, now has an almost charming appearance that greatly attenuates its original severity. In short, there is, and we can perceive, a very surprisingly distinct aura in reference to the pragmatic essentiality of a hamlet with centuries-old pastoral traditions and accustomed to cattle breeding but also to forestry. One suspects, then, that some innate talent of the inhabitants has made the difference. In addition, of course, to a granitic will exquisitely ‘montanara’ of which the Fanesi are traditionally proud, recognizing themselves in the traditional seven F’s of a
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sort of acronym that, it is said, should be dissolved in the exhortation “Fanesi Furono Fatevi Forti Figli Fanesi”. It is not surprising then if in 1923 a credit banking institution was even born here, the Banco Fanese, the result of the initiative of Antonio Nisii. Nor is it surprising to know that over the centuries the country has given birth to figures destined to hold positions of great visibility and importance. Like the Italian patriot Antonio Leognani, born in 1807. Fanese, and more precisely Moreni, a few narrow houses around the 17th century church of S. Rocco, today an integral part of the town, was Don Giuseppe Zilli, known as the “manager for the Lord”. Born in 1921 and entered the congregation founded by Fr Alberione at a very young age, in 1954 Zilli was appointed director of “Famiglia Cristiana” (the main Catho-
lic magazine in Italy) making it a real publishing phenomenon. When he died in 1981, Fr Giuseppe had in the meantime founded “Jesus” and “TV Family”, two magazine supplements which in a short time became the flagships of the Pauline Editions. Of Fano Adriano, where he was born in 1941, was also Naldo Maestrini, university professor in Bologna, bibliophile, expert in the history of veterinary medicine, director of the Institute of Airborne Pathology and correspondent member of the “Conseil International de la Chasse et de la Conservation du Gibier”. He disappeared prematurely in 1994 at the height of a prestigious academic career, today a precious antique collection preserved in the “Ercolani” library in Bologna, that of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, bears his name. Besides Zilli and Maestrini, many others
have honoured, and still do today, the name of Fano Adriano. It is an elected group that includes leading exponents of politics and the liberal professions, established businessmen, and top state executives. But also men of letters and artists of certain stature, including the sculptor and painter Silvio Cortellini, a worthy pupil of the great Guido Montauti, as well as the Cerquetano artist Silvio Mastrodascio, welln known in Italy and abroad. And even well-known faces of the Media’s flashing environment: born in Rome but of Fanoese origins is the effervescent TV presenter and author Enrico Papi, who, when he can, opts for the invigorating tranquillity of his ancestral places.
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SPECIAL FANO ADRIANO
In the previous page: Hermitage of the Annunziata. In this page: Red Veins. On the right: The “grigne” or “pigiatoi”
ENVIRONMENTS, NATURE, TRADITIONS, LEGENDS The embrace with nature always gives an underground thrill of pleasure. All the more so when you consider that the Gran Sasso area is home to two thousand and more plant species, including the bear’s ear primrose and the herbaceous willow. But in Fano Adriano, through the labyrinthine paths of the soul, one also experiences at the same time the sense of a remote belonging, of an ancestral bond with the environment. Here indeed “a secret force seems to offer itself to a spirit that understands the words of the wind”, as in 1956, in a delicate lyric, Rosa Di Benedetto (from Rome) wrote in a delicate lyric, (later known as Rosa Di Benedetto from Fano), who eventually became an appreciated scholar of ancient and modern languages. This is well known to the many enthusiasts who come to Fano Adriano attracted by the soaring spires of bright red and grey of Vene Rosse, right next to the fountain of Cannalecchia. This is probably the most beautiful and complete climbing
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site in Teramo also because of the splendid view of the North Face of the Corno Piccolo and the Eastern peak of the Corno Grande. The enhancement of the walls is due to the alpine guide Paolo De Laurentis and Pierpaolo Regimenti from Fano who in 2002 equipped “Gran Cereale” and “Muesli”, two climbing routes that exploit perhaps the most beautiful part of the wall. Subsequently Regimenti and Pino Sabbatini (a mountain guide who tragically died on the Gran Sasso mountain range) opened what can be considered the classic climbing route of the wall: the Pasto Nudo. The consecration of the cliff, however, took place in 2008, thanks above all to the intense and refined work of Paolo De Laurentis, flanked by Biagio Mengoli, Pino Sabbatini and Lino Di Marcello, to whom we owe the valuable work of arranging the space at the base of the cliff itself. The latest equipped sport climbing itineraries are the result of the very close collaboration between
Gianluca Di Benedetto and Paolo De Laurentis. To add also a fascinating peculiarity of the place constituted by the primitive basins carved among the sanguine rocks of the “Merletti”, just beyond the spring. Here they are called “grigne”, i.e. “pigiatoi”. And perhaps they were such in Roman times or even before, in this strip of land exposed to the sun which is still known today as “vignole”, small vineyards. Higher up, between peaks and spires, there is a gigantic natural arch: it is the Grotta delle Fate, once a shelter for shepherds and always at the centre of village legends, the elder sister of two other caverns placed under a big rock called “Venaforne”. But history and legends also inhabit the Colle dell’Annunziata, a plateau close to the village, reachable by the road that goes up to Prato Selva, suspended on deep cliffs and steep slopes dominated by woods. Here, where the quiet is surreal and the sky expands infinitely, history
caresses you with the silent stones of the Annunziata, a delightful little church-sanctuary of 1597 chosen by the hermits to feel closer to God and also, like that of S. Pietro, partly built with the stones of the Roman temple on the S. Marcello hill, the very close hill that has always been surrounded by a halo of mystery and that, according to the popular voice, still conceals the treasures buried here by the bandits. A place of the soul that the people of Fano used to reach through a mule track in the woods after having devoutly covered a foot-shaped rock, “lu pede de la Madonna”, with flowers. Here they used to celebrate and sometimes give rise to a ritual, between sacred and profane, to “make themselves appear”, strengthening the bonds of friendship. Faith, history, rites and legends that the wood seems to whisper when the evening comes down light with its long shadows.
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SPECIAL FANO ADRIANO
On this page: Cerqueto, church of S. Emidio. Inside. Baroque wooden altar.
CERQUETO, THE “PARADISE” OF ETHNOGRAPHERS
On the right: Cerqueto, church of S. Emidio. Inside.
Cerqueto, which is the only but important hamlet of Fano Adriano, boasts centuries of history. Seat in 873 of a monastery, S. Maria, dependent on S. Angelo di Barrea then Cassinese, in 1324 it emerges with its name in relation to the church of S. Egidio. The building, today a parish church, reveals in the rear part the oldest structures while at the entrance it shows the beautiful portal of 1585 with its elegant stone friezes and, at the sides of the architrave, the coat
Annunciation, fresco (XV century). and below: living nativity scene (ph.: Gianluca Pisciaroli).
of arms of the village represented by an oak tree. Inside you can admire some frescoes, including the fifteenth-century Annunciation, the Baroque wooden altars and the ceiling, also in wood, with lacunars and a central rosette. The upper nucleus of the village has buildings with interesting antique features which were carefully surveyed by a Japanese team in the early 1980s and published in Tokyo. Among the most significant are certainly the remains of a gafio, a balcony built with ancient Longobard building techniques, a small stone portal with corbels and epigraphs from the 16th century, a century in which, according
to tradition, the town welcomed a large Lombard presence. A true “paradise” for ethnographers as it was the repository of ancient pastoral traditions and, with Pietracamela, the nodal centre of the woolen hulls (hence the particular jargon here called trignino), the town gained national fame thanks to the Ethnographic Museum of Popular Traditions founded in September 1965 on the initiative of the parish priest Don Nicola Jobbi. Thanks to the dynamic priest, the community of Cerqueto organised the first Living Nativity scene at Christmas 1965. Today the representation, which as in the beginning involves the whole
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town population following a syncronised theatrical direction, is one of the most suggestive in Italy because it is set in the rock ridge that overlooks the town, with a set lighting that exploits the natural cavities and the environmental and scenic variations offered by the vegetation. The publisher and the author thank them for the exquisite collaboration Gianluca Di Benedetto, Roberto Durigon, Battista Luciani and Eugenia Recchia.
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SPECIAL FANO ADRIANO
F
ano Adriano and Cerqueto constitute without doubt a beautiful reality. Located at the foot of the Gran Sasso d’Italia Mountain Range in Abruzzo, and totally immersed in the National Nature Park of the Gran Sasso and of the Laga Mountains, the two villages, rich in art and history, are in fact in the palm of a mountain landscape that seduces for the impressiveness not less than for the extensive and centuries-old woods rich in wildlife and biodiversity. Nature, which here offers itself in a way variegated and spectacular, combines to offer a high quality of life. The lindore, widespread security, peace of mind and are the characterizing and recognized traits. Spaces suitable for leisure timeand sporting activity add further reasons of appreciation.the precious treasures that we have at our disposal must however be made known. Not only that, of course, nature and landscape, which constitute undoubtedly a component fundamental able to vibrate heart and soul. But also history, architectural works of art, rituals, and traditions, the industriousness of our people and collective memory, namely that plural and unrepeatable heritage,
material and immaterial, which gives the Fano Adriano characters of uniqueness making it a place of the soul. For this reason the Municipal Administration,is aiming at a work of promotion and ‘window opening’ within high coordinates quality, has availed itself of well known professionals, appreciated and able to ensure an editorial and pictorial product of excellent performance. I am therefore grateful to the publisher Paolo de Siena, to the professional photographer and videomaker Giancarlo Malandra as well, and above all, to the historian, journalist and essayist Sandro Galantini who, from decades, is deeply linked to the our community. Thanks to their commitment, path and nurtured by affectionateattention, you can see which and how much wealth is in possession of our Community, truly a conspicuous and precious legacy that is ourstask to protect and, precisely, to enhance adequately. Among our resources is to be counted without doubt the associationism that, uniting love to the territory and voluntaristic coefficients, gave birth to to successful events capable of involving the entire community, and making sure that the sense of identity, and have also made it possible to weave profitable relationships with neighbouring realities or more distant. Our relationship with Habitat World to internationalise
the ‘Borgo’ is one of the lynchpins of our municipal administration. Study abroad, and living inside Fano Adriano is living and working safely in a ‘new ancient world’ with an opportunity to savour the delights of culture, art and gastronomy of Abruzzo. There is then Prato Selva, our ski resort, small and charming, which after a few years of makeover will certainly be among the highlights and focal points of our Administration, so that it can be reconverted and usable by that sustainable tourism and lifelong nature education projects that fortunately today are receiving so much attention and on which is concentrated our most careful sensible action. It remains for me to say what joy and emotion I feel in entrusting these pages to the inhabitants of Fano Adriano and Cerqueto as well as to all those who will have the opportunity of exploring and living our territory in our way of life, and I hope, appreciate, this small vibrant community and radiant reality which, to paraphrase Cesare Pavese, no one is alone because everyone knows that in the plants, in the earth, in every stone there is something of oneself. Our Community is ready, waiting and welcoming with generous heart and happy soul, anyone, from anywhere, who wants to know and live our unique, safe and regenerating reality.
Tesori d’Abruzzo quarterly magazine Special Fano Adriano extracted at n ° 56 (Summer 2020) tesoridabruzzo.com Director Responsible Paolo de Siena Text Sandro Galantini Photo Giancarlo Malandra Layout Nicolas Pacchione De Siena editore sas Via Piave, 129 65124 Pescara T +39 085 4221643 desienaeditore.it Print Edit Press Castellalto (Te) Free copy On the cover: view of the village of Fano Adriano (Te).