Centro Informazioni del Parco della Majella — San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore

San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore is a western-sector information centre of Majella National Park, in the village's historic centre.

Why it matters

The park authority describes the centre as an entrance to the western sector of Majella National Park, including the Orta and Orfento valleys, Celestinian hermitages and the Maiella and Morrone massifs. San Valentino combines medieval and Baroque architecture.

What to notice

Grotta dei Callarelli, where prehistoric paintings led to protection as a geosite, lies within the park's western sector. The village includes the fountain of Venus in Largo San Nicola, an eighteenth-century Duomo with a double bell tower and early-eighteenth-century organ, Palazzo Trojani, and the Museo dei Fossili e delle Ambre in the former Augustinian monastery.

Context and history

San Valentino grew as a stronghold called Castel di Pietra before taking its present name from the shrine said to hold the martyrs Valentino and Damiano; the Duomo was raised, by tradition, to receive their relics. The prehistoric record runs deeper still: habitation around the Callerelli cave is presumed from the paintings left inside it. The village passed through the usual feudal hands, accumulated its baroque palazzi along lanes that climb and dive across the hill, and became a byword for popular religious theatre in its Holy Week rites. When Majella National Park established its reception network, the village's position on the historic road toward the Morrone made it a western-sector centre.