Capestrano, at the edge of Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park, is a fortified Medieval town dominated by the austere Piccolomini d’Aragona Castle (or Mediceo Castle, as the town was also a fiefdom of the famous Florentine Medicis), which is now the town hall. The town presents an interesting overlap of Medieval and Renaissance architecture, with several notable buildings. The current layout dates to the ninth century, when Capestrano was a possession of the monastery of San Pietro ad Oratorium. Nothing remains of the rich, powerful religious community except the abbey church with its twelfth-century layout, located lower than the town itself, on the green banks of the Tirino. The church has a nave and two aisles, and three round apses; the naves are separated by seven round arches on square pillars.
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