Since the mid-1400 and for many centuries, the prominent and wealthy families Croce and De Thomasis have leveraged Montenerodomo and have been engaged to benefit the town, to reach social justice in the region of Abruzzo and to the advantage of national history and culture.

The illuminist jurist Giuseppe De Thomasis, who promoted the abolition of feudal constraints in the kingdom of Naples, as well as the repartition of state-owned properties and the acknowledgment of the properties owned by the peasants, and the grandfather of Benedetto Croce, had their stately mansions in the highest part of the town. In his monograph titled “Montenerodomo - Storia di un comune di due famiglie” (Montenerodomo, one town, two families) the writer Benedetto Croce writes:  “in the narrow square between the two mansions, whose bottom is closed by Saint Martin Church, there are two streets: one which goes upwards and takes the name after Giuseppe De Thomasis, the other goes downwards and takes the name after my grandfather, Benedetto Croce. That was, and still is, the heart of the small land of Montenerodomo, where my ancestors lived ab antico”.

Only the remains of the two mansions can be seen today, after ages of negligence, abandon and the damages caused by the WW2 German destruction. A marble plaque marks the location of Croce’s house, while there still are the outer walls of the De Thomasis mansion, and it is easy to imagine the luxury of those wealthy land and cattle owners who even owned a “rich library with volumes of law, philosophy and many Latin and Italian poetry and literary books from the eighteenth century”, as Benedetto Croce states.

The philosopher and historian also recalls that he was used to walk “in their garden, where marble ruins of the ancient Juvanum were scattered around”. A beautiful view opens from that garden on Monte Pallano, going along the Sangro river to the shores of the Adriatic sea.

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