The Sirente Velino Regional Park is not only rich in nature, but also in history, culture, and traditions: an heritage coming from a past which contributed to shape the identity of this territory and its community, whose signs are still well preserved and evident.
Being a passing area and natural link between the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas, the Park has been inhabited since ancient times, as evidenced by the numerous archaeological findings disseminated on good part of the territory.

In medieval times, it held a strategic role for the defence and the military control, which has influenced the landscaping and architectural planning of the Park, where you can admire fortified villages, sight and control towers, castles, roman bridges.

It was also a place of spirituality, as evidenced by many religious buildings and convents, simple rural churches placed in contexts splendidly isolated and mystical and miraculous traces left by personages like Celestine V, St. Erasmus, St. Francis of Assisi who crossed or paused on this territory, but who continue to live thanks to the evocative folk festivals and traditions that the local community, with pride, continues to promote. Do not forget the numerous visits and walks that Pope John Paul II made on these mountains.

The traces of ancient Roman civilization

There are many traces and signs that testify the presence, in different areas of the Park, of forms of ancient settlement.
The Rocche Plateau is a district rich of history, architectural and archaeological importance.
In the period before the Roman conquest it was a borderland between Vestini, Marsi and Equi.
The Marsica has always been a strategic area being a place of passage between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Adriatic Sea, through Via Claudia Valeria, on which arises the ancient Roman town of Alba Fucens.
In Subequana and Aterno areas there are many discoveries. The human presence in these valleys has been established since prehistoric times; the "Italic" period is documented by the presence of fortified centres with necropolis on high ground places, the Roman period was witnessed by countless remains and inscriptions, among them - for considerable historical importance - point out the one found in Supereaquum in territory of Castelvecchio Subequo.

The Middle Age

In the XI century the area of the Park becomes a northern barrier of the Norman Kingdom. Following this event, the Abruzzo becomes a fully integrated region in the political and economic affairs of the south. For defensive needs, the territory is characterized by the castling phenomenon that coagulate, i.e., of settlements scattered in fortified villages that are still the fundamental structure of the architectural and landscaping view of the Park. Systems of sight and communication, individual towers or walled, real fortifications allowed control over the territory and the dangers that could arise. The castling and aggregation process of the population in the new centres is completed around the middle of the thirteenth century, coinciding with the reconstruction of the Celano Castle (destroyed by Frederick II in 1223) and the decadence of Alba. This last one had consequences of a certain importance on the organization of the territory: in fact it followed a deviation to the east of fundamental route Aterno Valley-Marsica (which since Roman period had his final part on St. Potito-St. Iona-Forme-Alba), and the consolidation of the new eastern route St. Potito-Celano, to the Tiburtina Valeria.

The Art

The monumental and artistic heritage of the park is worthy of importance.
Beautiful Romanesque churches, such as the Church of St. Maria in Valle Porclaneta of Rosciolo (Magliano de' Marsi); Renaissance and Baroque sacred art; suggestive monasteries castled among the valleys, as the convent and the church of St. Francesco in Castelvecchio Subequo and the Convent of St. Angelo in Ocre; precious rural churches, on the ways of transhumance or on height that invite to peace and serenity, as the rural church of St. Anna in Pagliare of Fontecchio and in those of Tione; St. Maria of Pietrabona in Castel di Ieri, St. Petronilla in Acciano and St. Pio in Molina Aterno. In Aterno and Subequana Valleys are clearly visible protective and propitiatory symbols, expression of popular religiosity and the mix between the sacred and profane. These symbols engraved on the walls of many houses in the villages of Acciano, Beffi, St. Lorenzo, Roccapreturo, Goriano Valli, Tione, St. Maria del Ponte, Fontecchio, Castelvecchio Subequo, Gagliano Aterno and Secinaro. In Roccapreturo, is signalled a harmonious square window adorned with protective and propitiatory symbols representing a male and a female figure with solar wheel and in Succiano, a cave of XVI-XVII century with a solar wheel on the plaster.