“It is extraordinary that such a small land, so poor, basically isolated and abandoned, has had so many refined minds”: That is what Lelio Porreca wrote in “Nell’antica terra dei Carricini”, where he had listed the eminent men of his beloved Torricella Peligna, from Vincenzo Tobia Bellini to John Fante, and Alessandro Madonna, Alfredo Piccone and Ettore Troilo. And the list should include Porreca himself, a passionate representative of history and a defender of landscape.

“A poet, a writer and an ecologist through his actions he showed clarity of mind and disinterested love for the traditions of his native town”, says a plaque on the house where he was born on 16 July 1926. Naturally linked to his town, his historic roots, to the preservation of traditions and customs, he strongly defended the beauty of the hamlets in Abruzzo, also in his many literary works, among which “Passeggiata in Abruzzo”, “La storia di Torricella Peligna”, “Nell’antica terra dei Carricini” and “Juvanum”.

In 1971 Lelio Porreca organized a seminar on “Save Maiella” to reject speculation on the mountain, and for this he was praised in an article published on Corriere della Sera by Indro Montanelli who defined him as “the pioneer of a new way to promote mountain and respect its sacrality … only from the bottom, only with shepherds Maiella can be saved”. It is also thanks to the prophetic wisdom of Porreca that the Maiella National Park became an Unesco World Geopark in 2021.

Lelio Porreca was also a passionate promoter of the archaeological excavations and protection of the heritage of Juvanum, with its baths, temples, the theatre. The “pioneer of a new way to promote Maiella” died in Rome on 9 November 1994. In 2018 The Maiella Park dedicated a path to his memory and to the memory of Indro Montanelli who were “among the first ones to defend the beauty of the mountain”.

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