Pescara's origins precede the
Roman conquest. It was founded to be the port of
Vestini and
Marrucini tribes to trade with the peoples of the Orient, a supporting role that was held for centuries. The name of both the town and the river was
Aternum, it was connected to Rome through the
Via Claudia Valeria and the
Via Tiburtina. The main building was the temple of
Jovis Aternium. The town was an important port for trade with the
Eastern provinces of the Empire. In the
Middle Ages it was destroyed by the
Lombards (597).
Saint Cetteus, the town's patron saint, was a
bishop of the 6th century, elected to the see of
Amiternum in
Sabina (today the city of
San Vittorino) in 590, during the pontificate of
Gregory the Great. His legend goes that he was executed by the Lombards at Amiternum by being thrown off a bridge with a stone tied around his neck; his body floated to Pescara.In 1095 Pescara was a fishing village enriched with monuments and churches. In 1140
Roger of Sicily conquered the town, giving rise to a period in which it was destroyed by armies ravaging the
Kingdom of Sicily. The name of
Piscaria ("abounding with fish") is mentioned for the first time in this period. Several seignors ruled over Pescara afterwards, including
Rainaldo Orsini,
Louis of Savoy, and
Francesco del Borgo, the vicar of king
Ladislaus of Naples, who had the fortress and the tower built. The subsequent rulers were the
D'Ávalos. In 1424 the famous
condottiero Muzio Attendolo died here. Another adventurer,
Jacopo Caldora, conquered the town in 1435 and 1439. In the following years Pescara was repeatedly attacked by the
Venetians, and later, as part of the Spanish
Kingdom of Naples, it was turned into a massive
fortress. In 1566 it was besieged by 105
Turk galleys. It resisted fiercely and the
Ottomans only managed to ravage the surrounding territory. At the beginning of the 18th century Pescara had some 3,000 inhabitants, half of them living in Castellammare, a small
frazione of the fortress. In 1707 it was attacked by
Austrian troops under the command of the
Count of Wallis: the town, led by
Giovanni Girolamo II Acquaviva, resisted for two months before capitulating. Pescara was always part of the
Kingdom of Naples, apart from the brief age of the
Republic of Naples of 1798–99. The town was therefore attacked by the pro-
Bourbon Giuseppe Pronio. In 1800 Pescara fell to
French troops, becoming an important military stronghold of
Joseph Bonaparte's reign. Castellammare, which now had 3,000 inhabitants of its own, became a separate municipality. In 1814, Pescara's
Carboneria revolted against
Joachim Murat. There, on 15 May 1815, the king undersigned one of the first constitutions of the
Italian Risorgimento. In the following years Pescara became a symbol of the
Bourbon's violent restoration as it housed one of the most notorious Bourbon jails. After a devastating flood in 1853, Pescara was liberated by
Giuseppe Garibaldi's collaborator
Clemente De Caesaris in 1860. Seven years later the fortress was dismantled. In the sixty following years Pescara was included in the Province of
Chieti and then merged with the adjacent town of Castellammare Adriatico and eventually became the largest city of its region. The new city suffered heavy civilian casualties when it was
bombed by the Allies who were attempting to cut German supply lines during
World War II. It has since been massively rebuilt, becoming a very modern coastal city of Italy. == Demographics ==