Montenerodomo is one of the highest towns on the Abruzzo Appennine, raising at 1200 mt above sea level in the province of Chieti. It has a harmonious landscape, with its ancient megalithic walls embracing its territory, and those of Roman Iuvanum, which have been there for over two thousand years, in a flourishing environment, telling stories of warriors, shepherds, chevaliers and landlords. It is an open-air museum, where Iuvanum dominates with its Archaeological Area against majestic Maiella.

Iuvanum belonged to the territory of Carricini people, and was their commercial and religious centre before the “social war” between 91 and 88 B.C. A Roman Municipium of the “IV Regio Samnium” from the Augustan age of the first century A.D., enrolled in the tribes of Arniensis, it was administered by a quadrumvirate. A group of 6 people, the “seviri augustales”, was in charge of the judiciary. Iuvanum declined and was abandoned during the Middle Age.

It is still possible to enjoy the memories of Iuvanum in the Archaeological Area. On the Acropolis there were two parallel, adjoining temples. One dates to the first half of the III century B.C. and keeps the nucleus of the marble podium, columns drums and bases. The other is from the 2nd century B.C., and is divided into three rooms with cell, pronaos and staircase. They might have been dedicated to Jupiter and Hercules. The Theatre dates to the II-I century B.C. with the auditorium leaning against the slopes of the Acropolis and preserving the first 7 rows of steps, the orchestra is paved with limestone slabs.

The Forum, paved with huge blocks with inscriptions, around which there were the “tabernae” and the workshops, still keeps only the basis of the monuments dedicated to emperors, gods and important people. An epigraph from the beginning of the 1st century B.C.. attests to the construction of the Basilica, where the public life of the city was administered, the imperial cult was practiced and court sentences were issued. The Cistercian Abbey of Santa Maria in Palazzo with a single nave and bell tower was built with the ruins of the Roman city in 1173. It was active until 1792.

[Credits | Text: Ottavio Di Renzo De Laurentis | Translation: Mirella Rapa | Voice and music: Studio Qreate | Photo: Laura Di Biase]