Sulmona

The Roman poet Ovid, born in the city.

Basilica della Santissima Annunziata.

Sulmona was one of the principal cities of the Paeligni, an Italic tribe, but no notice of it is found in history before the Roman conquest. A tradition alluded to by Ovid and Silius Italicus, which ascribed its foundation to Solymus, a Phrygian and one of the companions of Aeneas, is evidently a mere etymological fiction.[4] The first mention of Sulmo occurs in the Second Punic War, when its territory was ravaged by Hannibal in 211 BC, who, however, did not attack the city itself.[5] Its name is not noticed during the Social War, in which the Paeligni took so prominent a part; but according to Florus, it suffered severely in the subsequent civil war between Sulla and Gaius Marius, having been destroyed by the former as a punishment for allegiance to his rival.[6] The writings of that rhetorical writer are not, however, to be taken literally, and it is more probable that Sulmo was confiscated and its lands assigned by Sulla to a body of his soldiers.[7] In all events it is certain that Sulmo was a well-peopled and considerable town in 49 BC, when it was occupied by Domitius Calvinus with a garrison of seven cohorts; but the citizens, who were favorably inclined towards Julius Caesar, opened their gates to his lieutenant M. Antonius as soon as he presented himself.[8]

Not much more is known historically of Sulmo, which, however, appears to have continued to be a considerable provincial town. Ovid speaks of it as one of the three municipal towns whose districts composed the territory of the Paeligni:[9] and this is confirmed both by Pliny and the Liber Coloniarum; yet it does not seem to have ever been large, and Ovid himself designates it as a small provincial town.[10] From the Liber Coloniarum we learn also that it had received the status of a colony, probably in the time of Augustus;[11] though Pliny does not give it the title of a Colonia. Inscriptions, as well as the geographers and Itineraries, attest its continued existence as a municipal town throughout the Roman Empire.[12]

Campo 78 Sulmona (Abruzzo)

The chief claim to fame of Sulmona is derived from its having been the birthplace of Ovid, who repeatedly alludes to it as such, and celebrates its salubrity, and the numerous permanent streams of clear water in which its neighbourhood abounded. But, like the whole district of the Paeligni, it was extremely cold in winter, whence Ovid himself, and Silius Italicus in imitation of him, calls it "gelidus Sulmo"[13] Its territory was fertile, cultivation of both in grain and wine are common, and one district, the Pagus Fabianus, is particularly mentioned by Pliny[14] for the care bestowed on the irrigation of the vineyards.

Church of Santa Maria della Tomba.

Traditionally, the beginning of the Christian age in Sulmona is set in the 3rd century. The city was part of the diocese of Valva, while a Sulmonese bishop is known from the 5th century. One of the earliest bishops was Saint Pamphilus (San Panfilo), an Italian pagan convert to Christianity in the 7th century from nearby Corfinium. He was elected bishop of Valva in 682 and died in 706. He is the patron saint of Sulmona and is buried in the church dedicated to him, the present Sulmona Cathedral.

Sulmona became a free commune under the Normans. Under Emperor Frederick II an aqueduct was built in the town, one of the most important constructions of the era in the Abruzzo; the emperor made it the capital of a large province, as well the seat of a tribunal and of a fair, which it however lost with the arrival of the Angevins. Despite that, it continued to expand and a new line of walls was added in the 14th century.

In the 16th century a flourishing paper industry was started.

Church of Badia Morronese.

In 1706 the city was nearly razed by an earthquake. While much of the medieval city was destroyed by the earthquake, some remarkable buildings survive such as the Church of Santa Maria della Tomba, the Palazzo Annunziata, the Aqueduct and the Gothic portal on Corso Ovidio.

Much of the city was then rebuilt in the prevailing elegant Baroque style of the 18th century.

Sulmona experienced an economic boom in the late 19th century, becoming a railway hub given its strategic geographic position between Rome and the Adriatic coast.

The anarchist and labour organiser Carlo Tresca was born there in 1879 and was active in the Italian Railroad Workers' Federation until emigrating to the US in 1904 to escape a prison term.

Sulmona's strategic position also made it a target for air raids during World War II. The railway station, the industrial sections and parts of the old town were damaged, but today they have been mostly restored.

Campo 78 at Sulmona served as a POW camp in both world wars. During World War I, it housed Austrian prisoners captured in the Isonzo and Trentino campaigns; during World War II, it was home to as many as 3,000 British and Commonwealth officers and other ranks captured in North Africa. The camp itself was built on a hillside and consisted of a number of brick barracks surrounded by a high wall. During World War II, conditions in Sulmona for both the officers and the men were indifferent. Accommodation was overcrowded. Normal rations of rice soup and bread were occasionally augmented by fresh fruit and cheese in the summer. Some food parcels from the International Committee of the Red Cross were distributed occasionally. For recreation, the prisoners laid out a football field, and they also had equipment for cricket and basketball. There was a theatre, a small lending library, at least one band, and a newspaper produced by a group of prisoners.

In September 1943, as the Italian government neared collapse, the inmates of Sulmona heard rumours that the evacuation of the camp was imminent. They awoke one morning to discover that their guards had deserted them. On 14 September, German troops arrived to escort the prisoners northwards, to captivity in Germany, but not before hundreds of them had escaped into the hills. One such escapee was the South African author, Uys Krige, who described his experience in a book titled The way out.

There were two other smaller camps nearby, Fontana d'Amore, which held British officers, and Villa Orsini, which held very senior Allied officers captured during World War II, including Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd, Major-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Brigadier James Hargest, Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame, General Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor. All were subsequently transferred to Castello di Vincigliata Campo PG12 near Florence.[15]