The history of Tocco da Casauria traces its origins to the foundation of the first settlement of Interpromium in ancient times. After the disappearance of that settlement in the Middle Ages, the present town of Tocco was formed, developing around the two most important town buildings (Caracciolo Castle and the church of St. Eustace) as a result of a succession of rivalries between the Abbey of San Clemente a Casauria, to which the territories of Tocco belonged de jure, and lords of Germanic origin who attempted to usurp them by force.
Ancient age
Although Tocco is of medieval foundation, there was already a settlement (pagus) called Interpromium in its territory in ancient times. Its location was not near the present town of Tocco (placed on an elevated area), but on the valley floor where the Via Tiburtina Valeria (today traced by State Road 5) passed near the plateau where the church of Our Lady of the Angels is today. The ancient settlement was about 25.5 km away from Corfinium. It has not yet been established with absolute certainty which Italic people inhabited it, whether the Marrucini or the Peligni, although historians consider the Peligni to have been more likely. Regarding its destruction, it is believed to have been caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods, although the area of the ancient settlement was continued to be inhabited until the early Middle Ages.
Middle Ages
The most important document on medieval Tocco is the Chronicon Casauriense written by the monks of the Abbey of San Clemente a Casauria, which mentions Tocco for the first time in 872 as a curtis that was bought by the first abbot of San Clemente, named Romano, thus bringing that curtis under the jurisdiction of the Abbey. In the Chronicon it is recorded that the economy of the curtis of Tocco was predominantly agricultural, and the settlement in the 9th century began to gain importance over the settlements on the valley floor (including the one that had continuity with ancient Interpromium).
The emergence of the village of Tocco is linked to the process of medieval encastellation by which local and ecclesiastical lords sought to gain greater power and control over territories, with the territory of Tocco in particular being the subject of disputes between local rural lords of Germanic origin and the nearby Abbey of San Clemente a Casauria, in which the latter saw itself as the target of numerous territorial usurpations. This contention led to the founding of several castles in the area used to assert power over the various territories.
When the Abbey of St. Clement was destroyed by a Saracen raid in the first half of the 10th century, there was a Frank called Lupo, son of an official of Emperor Otto III of Saxony called Ludegerius, who usurped two unfortified settlements (villae) in the Cantalupo areaThe Cantalupo area is now on the municipal territory of Tocco da Casauria but outside its town center. where there were bitumen mines, then a possession of the Abbey, and in 969 he had a castle (castrum) built there.
In 1016 Alberic, Lupo's son, usurped the settlement of Fara Inter Montes (located at the bottom of the Pescara Valley) from the Abbey, also building a castrum there. In the same year he, after forcibly imposing his authority on the local inhabitants, also built a castle in the area of the present town of Tocco. The Abbot of St. Clement Adam II reacted in 1019 with a military operation of infantrymen and horsemen with which he conquered the castle of Tocco, which was destroyed after being set on fire. Following the event, in the same year the Chronicon Casauriense referred to Tocco as a simple villae (unfortified settlement) and no longer as a castrum.
Part of the territory of Tocco was then ceded by the Abbey to Gerard, son of Alberic and lord of nearby Popoli, up to the third generation in exchange for a canon. However, the conflict between the Abbey and Alberic's heirs continued, and in 1024 the abbot of San Clemente, Guido, complained in a letter to the emperor about the usurpation of the curtis of Tocco to the detriment of the Abbey. Between 1025 and 1026 the Abbey managed to repossess several territories in the Tocco area, but possession of the curtis proper remained with Alberic's heirs (Gerard and Theodinus), who fortified it back into a castrum. In 1056 the territory of Cantalupo also returned under the control of the Abbey.
In 1140 the territory of Tocco became part of the county of Manoppello, and from the 13th century the urban center was developed in stonework around the two most important buildings in the settlement at that time, the church of St. Eustace (whose existence was already reported in the Chronicon Casauriense on July 1, 1169) and the castle (rebuilt at the behest of Frederick II of Swabia).
In 1317 the church of St. Francis (now the church of St. Dominic) was built in the village and the Friars Minor Conventual along with the Third Order Regular of St. Francis settled there.
On September 9, 1349 there was an earthquake in the central-southern Apennines that caused severe damage to the town and killed many inhabitants.
In the second half of the 13th century the County of Manoppello, of which Tocco was part, was fragmented among various feudal lords and control of Tocco went to Matteo de Plexiaco, lord of Manoppello and Pescosansonesco.
Modern Age The earthquake in south-central Italy on December 5, 1456 killed about 350 people in Tocco and razed much of the town to the ground.
During the First Italian War (1494-1495) Charles VIII of France passed through Abruzzo on his descent into Italy against the Aragonese, and on his passage several towns abandoned their allegiance to the Aragonese and sided with the French, including Tocco.
On December 15, 1578, the Dominican friars officially settled in Tocco in the convent, which no longer exists, of Santa Maria della Pace.
Records show that in 1550 the lord of Tocco was the nobleman Camillo Caracciolo, but control of the village passed to Ferrante d'Afflitto, count of Loreto Aprutino, in 1585. During the 1600s, Ferrante d'Afflitto carried out several important works in the village, such as the construction of the convent and church of St. Anthony of Padua for the Capuchin friars and the restoration of the church of Our Lady of Grace and the church of St. Eustace. Later, again during the 1600s, control of Tocco changed again, this time from the d'Afflittos to the Pinelli family, who ruled the town for centuries until the Unification of Italy.
During the plague epidemic of 1656 the town's parish priest Don Gualtieri Mattucci recorded the deaths day by day beginning on August 1, 1656 and ending on January 1, 1657, the day he noted the end of the contagion. The plague of 1656 killed 590 people in Tocco in a population of about 1300-1500.
On November 3, 1706, an earthquake in the Maiella area destroyed much of the town and killed about a hundred people in the village. Among the buildings that were totally destroyed were the Ducal Palace and most of the churches in the village. In addition to the damage to buildings, the earthquake was also the cause of landslides in the village that caused a temporary halt to agriculture in Tocco. The reconstruction of the village took about thirty years.
During the 1730s Tocco was ruled by Duke Francesco Pinelli, who because of his despotic manner of behavior was frowned upon by the people, clergy and local nobility. Some citizens of Tocco therefore wrote a memorial against him to the court of Chieti, which ruled on June 23, 1737, by a decree of King Charles III of Spain, that Francesco be removed from Tocco. Later he was also ordered to appear before the Grand Tribunal of Naples, which confirmed the previous sentence. However, the Duke, after much pressure, managed in 1739 to rule Tocco again and take revenge against those who accused him.
Toward the end of the century, between 1794 and 1795 there was a major smallpox epidemic in the village that killed about a hundred people.
Contemporary age
19th century
Napoleonic invasion and cholera epidemic
Following the French invasion of Naples in 1806, a Napoleonic kingdom of the same name was founded with the French victory, and Tocco reentered the Chieti district. Following the French conquest there were the Napoleonic suppressions of religious orders. Convents were also closed in Tocco, and that of the Dominicans was initially used as military barracks for the gendarmerie, but by a decree of December 29, 1814, the property of the former convent was ceded to the municipality of Tocco, which used it to put its offices there. Even after the subsequent French retreat, the former convent remained the property of the municipality and did not return to its old religious function.
Between 1834 and 1836 a cholera epidemic spread in the Kingdom of Naples, and in Tocco the sanitary commission took precautions in this regard; houses and premises were disinfected with lime and roadblocks were set up within the town.Roadblocks were set up in the vicinity of the following buildings: church of San Rocco, church of St. Anthony of Padua, church of Our Lady of Grace, church of St. Joseph and Quercelle tavern. By order of the intendant of Abruzzo Citra in a letter dated September 8, 1836, the Capuchin convent was used as a hospital for cholera patients. Pharmacist Beniamino Toro, originally from Cansano, moved to Tocco in the early 1800s and in 1817 began the business of making centerbe liqueur in his Tocco pharmacy. The liquor's popularity grew during the cholera epidemic as it was used as a disinfectant and remedy for nausea.
1848 In the years leading up to 1848, cultural relations between Tocco and Chieti intensified because of the Tocco people who joined Chieti's political and cultural circles.
On March 23, 1848, the First Italian War of Independence broke out between the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Empire. In aid of the Kingdom of Sardinia other Italian states also sent contingents of troops, and among them was the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, of which Tocco was part. Bourbon troops traveling through northern Italy stopped in Tocco in a festive town atmosphere where tricolors were displayed.
On March 15, 1848, riots broke out in Naples and a few days earlier, on May 7, there were violent clashes in Abruzzo at Pratola Peligna between the people and the National Guard. News of the riots reached Tocco and a group of Tocco peasants planned an insurrection in the village for March 20 during the feast of the patron saint. However, Domenico Stromei, a well-known poet in the town, after learning of this warned the lords of Tocco, who sent the gendarmerie to the town. On the morning of March 20, about 20 mounted gendarmes entered Tocco, and when the procession for the celebration of St. Eustace reached the Ducal Palace (the castle), a group of armed commoners arrived ready to start a riot, but the crowd that was already there for the procession did not side with them and instead railed against them. The rioters, therefore, retreated and there were no clashes.
Following the various uprisings in the Kingdom there came state repression, and in May 1849, a year after the failed uprising in Tocco, Bourbon troops arrived in the village to search Stromei's home and store despite the fact that the previous year he had warned the authorities of the planned uprising by the peasants. All the letters in his possession were seized but he was not arrested. In the following years there were other house searches in Tocco for political reasons and 3 citizens were arrested.The three of them were called Domenico Mattucci, Domenico De Lutis, and Eustachio Santilli.
Unification of Italy and the post-unification period