La Piazzarola is a unique area of ​​the historic center of Ascoli Piceno, gathered around the Church of Sant’Angelo Magno. “La Piazzarola” is the dialect expression referring to its modest size. This place was the “Sexterio Gructarum” (the exclusive residence of the Ascoli aristocracy in the Middle Ages). The name “Grotte” (caves) concerns the huge substructured archivolts, largely still present, which in Roman times delimited the vast area of ​​the monumental “Capitolium” of Ascoli, now the Convent and Church of the Annunziata.

The quarter looks like an independent medieval village. The proofs of the fierce rivalry between the various “factions” of the city and the consequent demolition of their homes (suffered as a result of municipal magistrates’ bans against the “Exiled”), are the austere medieval buildings, alternated with ancient “blunted” noble towers and characteristic “walled gardens”.

Up to the first half of the 1900s, La Piazzarola hosted numerous warehouses used by the laundrymen of Castel Trosino to store goods and work animals or by Valle Castellana carpenters and coal merchants providing the coal for the kitchen stoves and the bleached perfumed linen.

CONDIVIDI I TUOI SCATTI CON GLI HASHTAG: #visitascoli #ascolipiceno2024 #ascolinedita

AUTHOR: Prof. Giorgio Giorgi, art historian