Palazzo Ciccarone, the most significant noble residence in Vasto after Palazzo d’Avalos, stands along Corso Plebiscito with its understated 18th-century architecture. Its symmetrical façade is punctuated by regularly spaced windows and balconies across two floors. The three entrances at street level once led to storage areas used by the landowning nobility to house agricultural goods.…
The Rossetti Theater in Vasto is the second-oldest theater in Abruzzo, following the Marrucino Theater in Chieti. It was inaugurated on May 30, 1819, originally named the Royal Bourbon Theater, and was built on the ruins of the former Church of Santo Spirito, which was part of the disbanded Celestine convent. Designed by engineer Taddeo…
The Palazzo del Carmine, as it stands today, was built in 1738 alongside the renovation of the adjacent church. By the mid-17th century, a convent already occupied the site, likely adapted from earlier structures. It became home to the Lucchesi fathers, invited to Vasto by Marquis Diego d’Avalos to establish a college dedicated to educating…
Situated today in front of the Belvedere Romani, which overlooks the Angrella valley, the Arch of Porta Nuova is both the oldest and the most recent gate of the historic city. Built in 1790 under the direction of Master Juror Giuseppe Tambelli, the arch occupies a location about twenty meters behind its original position, where…
A circular tower overlooks Piazza Verdi, the city’s main traffic crossroads, easily identifiable by its fifteenth-century base, which contrasts with the second floor built in the twentieth century and covered in plaster. This is the Santo Spirito Tower, one of the five towers that originally formed part of the defensive bulwarks of the “degli inforzi”…
Hidden among the alleys between Corso Plebiscito and Corso Garibaldi, the Diomede del Moro Tower, also known as the Damante Tower, stands out as the best-preserved of the three surviving towers of the city walls completed by Giacomo Caldora in 1439. To fully appreciate its structure, one must view it from Vico Storto del Passero,…
At the crossroads between Corso Palizzi and Corso Dante Alighieri, or between what were, respectively, the Cardo and the Decumanus of the Roman Histonium, if we continue towards the city center, we can cross an arch located below Palazzo Monteferrante, a neoclassical work by Nicola Maria Pietrocola, who takes us to Largo dei Quattro Forni.…
The Church of Santa Maria del Carmine is considered the most beautiful in Vasto from an architectural perspective, as it is the only one with a defined and cohesive style, both inside and outside. Its façade and bell tower, constructed between 1758 and 1761 based on designs by architect Mario Gioffredo, are excellent examples of…