Sperone

Sperone is a frazione of the Italian comune of Gioia dei Marsi, in the province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo.

According to studies by the historian and anthropologist Antonio De Nino, oppida (ocre in the Marsian language) and some sanctuaries stood around the tower of Sperone and the nearby citadel of Gioia Vecchio, a fortified centre of the Marsi.

The name comes from two ancient castles: Sparnasio, said to derive from the Greek god Pan, and Asinio, which stood on the path linking the village to the nearby community of Aschi Alto.

Later the two castles merged into the first settlement, called Speron d'Asino in the Middle Ages, which in 1193 was a fief of Simone di Capistrello, lord of several walled castles in the Marsica together with his brother Crescenzio.

The round tower, which dominates the village at 1,240 m above sea level, dates from the 13th century, when the Counts of the Marsi built it as the county of Celano expanded, to control the nearby Sparnasio pass, in line of sight with similar military structures around Lake Fucino. Once there was no longer a need to control the territory, especially the border with the Giovenco valley and the Alto Sangro, an important route to southern Italy throughout the Middle Ages, the village lost its strategic importance.

Administratively it was officially included in the comune of Gioia dei Marsi from the early 1800s; in 1869 it had about 220 inhabitants, as reported by the local historian Andrea Di Pietro.

Text: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · translated from Italian