Sulmona

Sulmona is located in the middle of the plain, surrounded by mountains and two rivers – Gizio and Vella.

Sulmona town has a particularly simple urban tissue and hosts several important artistic monuments that made it deserve the name of “Abruzzo’s bomboniera”.

The historical center holds palaces, houses, religious structures, among which we find the Cathedral, the Annunziata complex, the medieval aqueduct and the portal of St. Francesco della Scarpa’s church. On the outskirt of the town one can admire the Abbey of the Holy Spirit at Morrone and the Shrine of Hercules Curinus.

SMPE (“Sulmona is my native place”) is the town’s acronym, resulting from the Ovidian lines:

“Sulmo mihi patria est. Ille ego qui fuerim, tenerorum lusor amorum, quem legis, ut noris, accipe posteritas.Sulmo mihi patria est, gelidis uberrimus undis, milia qui noviens distat ab urbem decem.”

“Listen Posterity, and find out who this ‘I’ was,
this playful poet of tender passions you read.
Sulmo’s my native place, rich in icy streams,
and ninety miles distant from the City.”
(Ovid: The Poems Of Exile (Tristia, Ex Ponto, Ibis), Book TIV.X:1-40)

Sulmona Monuments Click on the map for a bigger version