Città Sant'Angelo

Città Sant'Angelo crowns a hill above the Adriatic slopes of Abruzzo. Its old streets and churches occupy the fortified settlement rebuilt after Frederick II ordered its destruction in 1239. The town returned to royal control in 1305 and remained there for more than two centuries, before Charles V granted it to Guglielmo de Croÿ in 1516. Later it passed to the Piccolomini of Celano and the Figliola family, successive lords of the hill town.

Earthquakes in 1706 and 1730 damaged the church of San Francesco. Its rebuilding began in 1741, retaining parts of the older Gothic structure while giving the interior a new Baroque form. The church illustrates how the town's medieval fabric was reshaped after disasters in the early eighteenth century, after repeated damage to its churches.