Taverna ducale

Type:

Luoghi della cultura; Ente/Istituzione

Category:

Archaeology museums

Erected by the duke of Popoli, Giovanni Cantelmo, between 1333 and 1337, it is a rare example of medieval civil architecture in Abruzzo. The external faade is remarkable because of its singular making. The lower part of the facade is composed by limestone blocks, a pointed portal, a little portal with a segmental arch characterized by a floral pattern, eight coats of arms decorated by bas-reliefs which illustrate Angioini's family, Cantelmo's family and other important ones. The coats of arms are interchanged with supernatural creatures.

Although it seemed to be a medieval shop, it was commonly used as the warehouse for harvest and deposit for tithes, a sort of banking outlet for Transumanza. Later it became a tavern and an Inn, giving visitors the possibility to restore themselves.

The upper part of the facade has got a pair of a double lancet windows once characterized by polylobed arches and tracery patterns.

Today, it is a small Antiquarium with a permanent exhibition: it preserves a collection of stone materials found in the surrounding area. Among the artifacts there are two limestone headless Roman statues, one male and the other female, a pagan altar dated 1st century A.D., offered by Sevir Augustalis Caius Pontius to the depicted winner Isis; the fragment of an epigraph dated 1st century A.D.; a limestone stele dated between the 1st and the 2nd century A.D, decorated with frames and inscriptions on three sides dedicated to Magna Mater and to Attis.

Furthermore, in the exhibition hall are presented a column of the 16th centurty ornated by an ionic pillar with anthropomorphic figures and phytomorfic decorations at the bottom, two corbels and an inscription, dated 1519, regarding the wool mill owned by Giovannella Carafa, from the adjacent Palazzo Forniti and two bas-reliefs of the 16th century which represent the Omnipotent and the announcing angel with a wiggly pose and an elegant drapery.