Scurcola Marsicana is a ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces ('' province''). The can ...

'' and

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

in the

province of L'Aquila The Province of L'Aquila ( it, Provincia dell'Aquila) is the largest, most mountainous and least densely populated province of the Abruzzo region of Central Italy. It comprises about half the landmass of Abruzzo and occupies the western part of ...

, in the

Abruzzo , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1 ...

region of central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is located at the feet of Mount San Nicola, on the western rim of the former Fucine Lake.

History

The most ancient findings of human presence in the area date from the 9th-8th centuries BC. The name is of Lombard origin, and is first mentioned around 1150 AD. In the nearby, in the

Palentine Plains The () are a plateau in upper Marsica, a subregion of Abruzzo, in central Italy. Description The plains, located between a.s.l., are surrounded by mountain reliefs such as those of the Sirente-Velino group, Mount San Nicola, the Mount Bove ...

( it, Piani Palentini), was fought the Battle of Tagliacozzo between

Conradin Conrad III (25 March 1252 – 29 October 1268), called ''the Younger'' or ''the Boy'', but usually known by the diminutive Conradin (german: link=no, Konradin, it, Corradino), was the last direct heir of the House of Hohenstaufen. He was Duk ...

Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...

and

Charles I of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and Forcalquier (1246–48, 1256–85) i ...

. The city was also the seat of a massacre of the local population by the Piedmontese troops in the aftermath of the

unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single s ...

Main sights

*Church of ''Sant'Egidio'' *Church of ''Sant'Antonio'' *Church of ''SS. Trinità'' *Church of ''Maria SS. della Vittoria'' * Abbey of ''Santa Maria della Vittoria'' * Castello Orsini ( Orsini Castle)

Twin towns

* Passau, Germany

References

Marsica {{Abruzzo-geo-stub