Villa Popolo

Last updated April 15, 2019

Villa Popolo is a small village in the province of Teramo, in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It is a frazione of the comune of Torricella Sicura.

The Province of Teramo is a province in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Teramo. The province has an area of 1,948 square kilometres (752 sq mi), a population of 313,029 (2012), and is subdivided into 47 comunes, see Comunes of the Province of Teramo. The Province of Teramo shares its northern border with the Province of Ascoli Piceno in the Marche Region, southern and southwestern borders with the Province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo Region, and a western border with the Province of Rieti in the Region of Lazio. To the south is the Abruzzo Province of Pescara and to the east is the Adriatic Sea.

Abruzzo is a region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km and a population of 1.2 million. It is divided into four provinces: L'Aquila, Teramo, Pescara, and Chieti. Its western border lies 80 km (50 mi) east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east. Geographically, Abruzzo is divided into a mountainous area in the west, which includes the Gran Sasso d'Italia, and a coastal area in the east with beaches on the Adriatic Sea.

"Frazione" is the Italian name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere. It is cognate to the English word fraction, but in practice is roughly equivalent to "parishes" or "wards" in other countries.

Geography

It is located next to the small community of Ioanella and about 1.5 miles from Teramo, the provincial capital.

Teramo is a city and comune in the Italian region of Abruzzo, the capital of the province of Teramo.

The village of Villa Popola is divided into three small localities: Villa Torre (site of most of the residences), Popolo Alta and Popola Bassa. The last two locations are dominated by small, often economically impoverished, clusters of farmsteads.

History

Villa Popolo is famous for the Church of Saint Bartholomew containing precious frescoes. Historical records from the year 1267 make mention of this important parish church and interior and exterior engravings suggest that a renovation was completed the 1684.

Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word fresco is derived from the Italian adjective fresco meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.

It is somewhat unusual for a church this small and isolated to have such frescoes dating back to this time period. Ceiling frieze decorations depict saints and martyrs in symbolic form. Notable is their having been painted in the style of the great Spanish cathedral in Toledo. They have been signed although it is not entirely clear if the names on the paintings refer to the master scenic artist or to an assistant. It goes without saying that such precious masterpieces of this genre are quite rare in the Abruzzo region.

Toledo is a city and municipality located in central Spain; it is the capital of the province of Toledo and the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Toledo was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive monumental and cultural heritage.

Festivals

Each year, during the first part of June, the "Sagra del Formaggio Fritto" (Festival of Fried Cheese) takes place. In addition to a celebration of this famous dish, other delicacies and local wines are available for tasting. Exhibitions feature the transhumance (migrations of sheep and shepherds from lowland areas of Abruzzo and leading to higher grazing lands in Apulia, Lazio, and other parts of southern Italy). Various displays also depict the ancient professions of milling, cheese production, forestry, and woodworking.

Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions, it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Generally only the herds travel, with a certain number of people necessary to tend them, while the main population stays at the base. In contrast, horizontal transhumance is more susceptible to being disrupted by climatic, economic, or political change.

Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Otranto and Gulf of Taranto to the south. The region comprises 19,345 square kilometers (7,469 sq mi), and its population is about four million.

Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the central peninsular section of the country, it has almost 5.9 million inhabitants – making it the second most populated region of Italy – and its GDP of more than 170 billion euros per annum means that it has the nation's second largest regional economy. The capital of Lazio is Rome, which is also Italy's capital and the country's largest city.

Notes and references

Coordinates: 42°39′39″N13°37′13″E / 42.66083°N 13.62028°E / 42.66083; 13.62028

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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