Castel di Lama in the Province of Ascoli Piceno
Castel di Lama is named after the Lama Torrent, which flows along its territory together with the Tosa and Chifene Torrents, overlooking the Tronto valley. Despite its name, Castel di Lama has never been a castle, meant as the aggregational centre of the village. Its area was covered by isolated properties, some protected by fortified structures, among which there was a castellum Lamae, quoted in 1381, which is where this town takes its name.
Nowadays, the countryside surrounding Castel di Lama is still characterized by isolated farmhouses and by fields cultivated with the same olive and fruit groves and with the vineyards that existed since Roman times.
The most important church is St. Maria in Mignano, close to what remains of Villa Piattoni. Founded in 1506, it was the centre of the village during the Renaissance. Moreover it is worth mentioning Madonna degli Angeli Sanctuary, near Chiarini Contrada, and two modern churches, both in Villa S. Antonio: St. Filippo Neri (1931) and St. Antonio (1974), which contains an altarpiece by Dino Ferrari representing the Crucifixon.
The peculiar aspect of this area is due to its patrician villas, probably remains of older Roman country residences, most of them built during the XVIIIth century. The most important one is Villa Seghetti-Panichi, antique residence of the Odoardi's, one of the most prestigious families of Ascoli, who probably received this territory as a feud since the XIVth century. The villa lies nowadays just on the site identified as the original nucleus of the castellum Lamae and is surrounded by an ornamental garden, where each summer many concerts are organized.
People travelling from the inland, passing through the Salaria Road, which was the only link between the inland and the Adriatic coast before the building of the Ascoli-Mare toll-free motorway, are bound to stop at Castel di Lama to taste the typical cacciannanze, a kind of pizza used in the past to test the temperature of wood-ovens, before putting bread in. With modern technology, the cacciannanze pizza lost its original purpose, but nonetheless, its fragrance and taste have remained unchanged through time.
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