Scurcola Marsicana

In the Lombard period the terms "sculka" and "sculcula" appear in the Edict of Rotari of 643 and subsequently in the legislation of the Longobard King Rachis dated between the 744 and the 749. The homophones toponyms are found in the territories of Sgurgola, Celano, Cugnoli, at the mouth of the river Vomano and in Tirino Valley.

Important commercial and cultural center of the Marsica, is situated at the foot of Monte San Nicola. From the high part of town you dominate the plans Palentini, the scene of the battle of Tagliacozzo. In some periods of the prehistoric and in subsequent periods of full, plans Palentini and the Fucino formed a single lake. The first traces of a settlement in the territory scurcolano date back to the Bronze Age and later Iron Age. In the period preromano the area was populated by people fair in perennial conflict with neighboring the Marsi whose territory stretched around lake of Fucino, not far from Scurcola. The scarcity of resources and the presence of a fertile plain (Plans Palentini) were the basis for these contrasts. In the moment in which Rome emerged between the city-state in Latin, to ascend the mentor role of italic people, you scontrò even with the Fair that assoggettò in several military campaigns; in fair territory on the border of what marso, realized the colony of Alba Fucens, while the territory scurcolano was inserted in the Ager publicus aequicolanus, from which Cicolano relative to the Valle del Salto. On the occasion the territory Scurcola was inserted in the Centuriazione albense made as a result of the creation of the Latin colony of Alba Fucens.

During the social war Rome fought with its former allies italics from 89 to 91 b.C., while the italics were already subject in 304 BC at the end of the Second Samnite War and the Marsi, in 294 b.c. after the rebellion against the institution of the Latin colony of Carseoli. The coveted citizenship was reached after the social war, it began the process of Romanization of the people. Alba Fucens not participated in the "Italic League" and then underwent the destruction at the hands of the marse troops which have arisen (the siege and destruction of Alba Fucens). During the imperial era, and especially in the late Roman Empire, there was a proliferation of villas in the countryside, as a consequence of the abandonment of the Urbe from part of the privileged classes. With the end of the Roman Empire of the West the area was first subject to the struggles between the Goths and the Byzantines and then subject to the Longobards inside of the Duchy of Spoleto, then passed to the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne. Date back to this period the certain traces of a village on the Monte S. Nicola; it was almost probably a guard post above the Via Valeria, made in roman times and still viable.

In the XI century the territorial area of Scurcola was annexd to the Kingdom of Sicily Under the Norman dominion. From this period dates the first castle Scurcola, a tower (perhaps of ancient times) surrounded by a circle of walls and subsequently incorporated in a castle of pentagonal shape. When the Southern Italy became a possession of the Swabian dynasty the region experienced a period of stability and economic growth; the village close to the small fortress it grew and developed the agricultural activities and crafts. In 1268, the area became the scene of the Battle of Tagliacozzo, final clash between the Swabians and Angevins for the conquest of the South.

The history of Scurcola remained tied to the fate of the Marsica up to the XVI century, when in the region began to be inserted the Orsini family of Rome, which had as its aim is to extend the properties from the Papal State to that of the Kingdom of Naples. This is the period in which the old castle was incorporated in the New Rocca, built according to the new constructive canons, to better withstand the sieges made also with the use of the first firearms. With the arrival of the Orsini soon came also the penetration of the other important Roman family, the column, which came soon in conflict with that. Most times the Fortress passed from family to family to stay finally firmly to the column until the nineteenth century. In the meantime the situation of the abbey worsened: the contrasts between the powerful of the place, famines and plagues determined the ruin of what was considered by all the greatest example of Cistercian Gothic French d'Italia.

At the end of the XVI century and the beginning of the XVII century in the country were made a series of major works: the church of the SS. The Trinity, in the style of the Counter-Reformation, richly decorated in the course of the centuries and recently restored, with its splendid Baroque staircase, the church of S. Antonio da Padova is part of the former convent of the contractors, with baroque interior and the new church of Maria SS. of Victory, lying close to the Rocca, above the village. Between the XVII and the XVIII century the life of the small community scurcolana agropastoral was marked only by hard work and famine which imperversarono often in the region also because of the passage of numerous armies.

In the nineteenth century Scurcola occurred serious episodes linked to the movements to which followed the Unity of Italy, in particular the massacre perpetrated by soldiers of the Piedmontese army that fucilarono soldiers of Bourbon troups. Many marsicani aggregarono you to the formations of the brigands, adhering in particular to the band Mancini (a belonging to this band was Ciavarella Luigi Scurcola Marsicana that was shot at Luco dei Marsi on 6 April 1862) and to the band of Luigi Alonzi said Chiavone.

Certainly deserves a visit to the Rocca Orsini, the undisputed protagonist of the panorama of the village.