Do you remember the Horse Riding Achilles? Yes, right the one known for his heel. It’s him, the horseman who stands out on Chieti’s coat of arms. The reason for this is easy to find out: in times past, Chieti was known as Theate, namely Thetis’ town, where Thetis was Achilles’ mother. Despite being short, this introduction lets us understand how rich in history and culture Chieti is.
The National Archaeology Museum of Abruzzo, that hosts the Warrior of Capestrano, La Civitella Archaeology Museum, which tells the story of the ancient Marrucie Scienzenian civilisation, The University Museum of the History of Biomedical Sciences, that stores prehistoric finds, medical finds, et al, the Costantino Barbella Art Museum, rich in frescos, sculptures and Castelli majolicaware, the Diocesan Museum Teatino, together with the D’Annunzio University, represent only a few jewels in the crown of this ancient town that, in its palaces and churches, bears the signs of numerous bygone centuries.
With their different architectures, from the Romanesque style to the Baroque one, from the Neoclassical style to the Victorian one, Chieti’s palaces and churches not only depict a panorama which changes quickly; they also enable us to retrace the history of an ancient town, as old as Rome or even more, that gave birth to illustrious sons, such as the praetor marrocinorum Asinio Herio (+90 B.C.) and the politician and warlord Gaio Asinio Pollione (+5 A.D.).
However, Chieti, despite its long history, has not come to a standstill yet. Indeed, it is a town that boasts ongoing excellences: Alessandro Valignano (a Jesuit missionary who left in order to evangelise the Far East, in the 1500s); Romualdo de Sterlich and Ferdinando Galliani (economists), Saverio Selecchy (a musician, author of a peerless Miserere) in the 1700s; Costantino Barbella (a nineteenth-century sculptor); Raffaele Fraticelli (a poet, who was particularly operative during the second world war) and, in more recent times, the entrepreneurs Sergio Marchionne (Ferrari and FCA CEO, Chairman of Maserati, etc.) and Pierluigi Zappacosta (Logitech Co-founder): they are only an example of this ancient and noble town prominent personalities.
Deliberately, we left till last any reference to The Marrucino Theatre, Chieti and the entire Abruzzo’s cultural centre, which, in its being two hundred years old (1817-2017), represents the oldest theatre in the entire region.