Santo Stefano di Sessanio

At 1250 meters above sea level in the National Park of Gransasso, Santo Stefano di Sessanio is a small, perfectly intact historic center because, being that its prosperity is due to commerce of wool and transhumance; from the end of the 19th century and in the 20th its population decreased, passing from more than a thousand inhabitants to around 130 and thus did not have the expansion of modern buildings.
Today, however, thanks to a shrewd political administration and the will of some young people who have remained in the town, it has opened to tourism and is in in a state of renewal; on the other hand the locations are splendid and the town itself is very beautiful, and its beautiful stone houses with tile roofs are perfectly integrated with the surrounding nature.
Tradition says that the name Sessanio derives from the Latin "Sextantio", a Roman town six miles from the ancient Peltinum, important crossroads of traffic in the Roman era, but the first certain news dates back to 760 A.D. with the donation on behalf of the Lombard king Desiderio of the possession of Carapelle Calviso, in which Santo Stefano took part to the Benedictines of the monastery of San Vincenzo in Volturno. The widespread work of the monastic orders determined an increase in the lands cultivated, the re-population of the countryside even at high altitudes, as well as the birth and consolidation of fortified towns, much more secure in elevated positions. The first certain news of the existence of the fortified town of Santo Stefano di Sessanio dates back to 1308, which at the time was already a part of the Baron of Carapelle. Towards the end of the 15th century, under the Aragonas, a law in favor of the and reordering of the pastures in Puglia gave a strong impulse to the phenomenon of transhumanace; in this area a quality of wool that was very appreciated by Tuscan weavers was produced. In the second half of the 16th century the Barons of Piccolomini surrendered to the Medicis, who maintained possession of until the mid-18th century. And it was the period of maximum splendor for Santo Stefano, as can be seen in the quality of the buildings of the town, in stone and with elegant details sculpted in the stone. Towards the end of the 19th century, the lands of Tavoliere di Pugia were privatized, and the phenomenon of the transhumance ended in this area; from there the decline of the town and the emigration of its inhabitants began.