Fontecchio

Have you ever seen an artistic circle of over thirty actors, sculptors and painters choose to live in a town of 300 inhabitants? 

This is what you find in Fontecchio, surrounded by the green Aterno Valley in the Sirente-Velino Regional Natural Park in the province of L'Aquila. 
Here, for some years now, art and culture have come into play to regenerate the area.
At its entrance, you will find a curious artisan workshop displaying the bewildered looks of dolls, the traditional “pupazze abruzzesi” (Abruzzo puppets made of papier-mâché. These dolls come to life from the hands of a couple of craftsmen artists, revived through didactic workshops, but above all in theatrical performances and traditional events in the Apennine villages. Ask them to teach you the construction technique, based on glue and rags, and put your hands to work. You will have a lot of fun. But it is only the beginning. 

Just a stone's throw from the historic centre, a large structure welcome you with a gallery for exhibitions and displays and a community hall, entrusted free of charge to make it public and usable to anyone seeking a space where to carry out creative activities. Its purpose is to develop a broad network with different cultural entities and to be a point of reference for emerging artists, residents of Fontecchio and the entire area.
Go and see it. You will find a dozen artists in action: according to their inclinations, they paint, recite, compose poetry, create play workshops and write scripts. 
It is a stream of creativity, which began thanks to an initial project launched by an American artist (Fontecchio International Airport), making the town an increasingly fertile ground for hosting friends and collaborators of the American artist, and thus creatives, filmmakers, painters, sculptors, writers, friends of friends. Some have left, others have chosen to stay.

A few more workshops can be found in the village, which is very old, with narrow cobbled streets and a medieval tower with an ancient clock that is considered one of the oldest in Italy. The dial is divided into six hours and the mechanism, which is still working, moves only the hour hand. Every evening it emits 50 chimes in memory of the 50 days of the Spanish siege of 1648, which ended thanks to the Marquise Corvi who killed the commander of the enemy troops.
In the tower you can also see a permanent photo exhibition on the places of L'Aquila before and after the 2009 earthquake, entitled “The Space of Memory”.

And even though, due to the earthquake, almost all the churches are still unfit for use, and work in progress disrupts the beauty of the village here and there, your visit proceeds smoothly and is charged with energy, thanks to the art that has been unleashed around it, too. An example of this is the Fountain with Masks in Piazza del Popolo, the symbol of the town. It dates back to the 14th century and features a circular basin at the base, with three-pointed arches dividing the space, with a column in the centre adorned with plant and human figures, from whose spouts come out.
Also in the square, admire a shrine with a fresco of the Madonna dell'Uccellino and a fountain with basin, used for watering animals.

Treat yourself to a different kind of art at lunchtime with “fettuccine” with truffles and saffron, “gnocchi”, grilled meat and barbecued sausages. You will be bewitched on your way to Fontecchio.

What else to see:

• The medieval bridge over the Aterno river
• Corvi Palace
• Muzi Palace
• The Old Tannery
• The ruins of the Capuchin Convent
• The Oasis of Fontecchio