Rilevamenti e letture analitiche dell’impianto fortificato di Castrum Tocci in Tocco da Casauria

The contribution focuses on the fortified structure of Tocco Casauria, ancient Castrum Tocci, analysing its defensive structure in relation to the environmental context and the development of the urban core. The castle rises in a dominant position over the upper Pescara valley. Its strategic location allowed the control of an important territorial area in which the main connections between the interior and the Adriatic strip took place, through the original consular routes of Via Claudia and Via Tiburtina Valeria. The first settlement dates back to the early medieval period, as evidenced by the coeval collection of chronicles reported in the Liber instrumentorum seu chronicorum monasterii Casauriensis documenting the heritage of the nearby Abbey of San Clemente a Casauria in the 11th-12th centuries, known as Chronicon Casauriense. The text mentions the existence of the manor, proven by deeds and donations that took place within it, before the Frederician period in which the structure was strengthened for its irreplaceable tasks of sighting the entire Pescara River valley and defending the territory. The surveillance of a neuralgic crossroads considered to be the key to the three Abbruzzi, as it connected Chieti, L’Aquila and Pescara through the Tremonti Gorge passing through Popoli, where Cantelmo Castle stands, allowed the connection between the Tirino and Pescara River valleys. The earthquake of 1456 destroyed the primitive structure, which was rebuilt and converted into the residence of the De Tortis dukes, as evidenced by the epigraph in the courtyard of the renovated Ducal Palace. A further change due to the seismic event in 1706 established the last modification of the fortified palace by the Pinelli dynasty, which was succeeded by the Caracciolo dynasty, whose heirs lived there until World War II. In short, the survey, starting from the current findings that see the structure in a state of complete abandonment, retraces its salient stages while documenting the evolutionary phases of the historical centre, in which the imposing bulk of the castle still emerges today, dominating the peculiar landscape.