Mosciano Sant'Angelo
Lying between the valleys of the Tordino and the Salinello, the ancient mediaeval town of Mosciano was born with the foundation of the Benedictine Monastery and Church of Sant'Angelo and became a fief of the Acquaviva. It has a beautiful historical centre dominated by the imposing over 20 metres high Gothic Torre Acquaviva. A tablet on the wall reminds that it was commissioned in 1397 by Matteo di Angelo di Morro, a monk belonging to the Benedictine order.
Right outside the town stands the convent of the Santi Sette Frati o Fratelli from which there has been notice ever since 1059 and which depended from the monastery of Montecassino. The tower and the elegant monastic cloister are the only parts remaining from the whole Benedictine complex along with a large 18th-century painting of Saint Francis receiving the stigmata, that hangs opposite the entry.
The artistic “treasures” of Mosciano include the 19th-century Church of the SS.Rosario recalling the architectonic structure of the Pantheon in Rome and the Chiesa dell’Addolorata. Inside the latter are conserved some paintings of Gennaro della Monica, a wonderful triptych representing the Adoration executed in 1894 by Prospero Piatti, and a painting of the crucifixion by the contemporary artist Franco Tommarelli.
Nearby lies the evocative village of Montone, famous for the monumental sarcophagus of the nobleman Bucciarello di Jacopo di Bartolomeo (1390) which is nowadays kept in the Church of S.Antonio Abate, former chapel of the Celestine convent during the 16th century.