Set in the area of the Altipiani Maggiori d’Abruzzo , in a land dominated by grazing, Pescocostanzo is located at 1400 meters altitude at the slope of the Calvario’s Mountain: from here you can see all the Quarto Grande hollow.
It belongs to the mountain community of Alto Sangro and to the Cinquemiglia upland.
History
The foundation of Pescocostanzo dates as back as the Xth century. Since the first centuries it became an important center among the others showing nontheless difficoult relationships with feudatories and religious institutions.
The 1456′s earthquake that devastated the Abruzzo gave the possibility to the hamlet to change the urbanistic asset with the inflow of a huge colony of lombard workers; this peculiar event left a strong sign on the social and cultural texture. With the Ferdinando I d’Aragona reign Pescocostanzo had a statute guaranteeing its belonging to the regio demanio for a while, with all the relative freedom.
Lately the control of the village got into the had of feudatories.
The formation during the history of a economically solid and culturally elevated social class leaded to an efficient amministration and to a wealthy situation.
The turning point for the village was in the 1774 when, assuming the title of Universitas Sui Domina (Self controlled community), motto still present in the comunal emblem, it get rid of the feudatory domination. After that the philosofical, historical, mathematic, letterary, juridical and art studies found a fertil habitat in the community.
As a withness of the local culture there are the book heritages guarded by many families. The first and most remarkable translater in Italy of the Kantian Philosofy was a pescolan citizen, the philosofer and mathematic Ottavio Colecchi. The presence of a consistent number of pieces art in the little borgo find its explanation in two reasons: the considerable economical resources of the public institutions and dirigents and the availability of workes able to work with stone, marble, iron and wood, traditional handcrafts preserved after the immigration of the lombard mastri between XV and XVII century.
