Garrano Basso is a village in the province of Teramo

Province of Teramo

The Province of Teramo is located in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Teramo. The province has an area of 1,948 km², a population of 296,063 , and is subdivided into 47 comunes , see Comunes of the Province of Teramo...

. This province is located in the Abruzzo

Abruzzo

Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...

 region of Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. The village, which had a population of 109 as of 2001, is a frazione

Frazione

A frazione , in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere...

(part) of the city of Teramo

Teramo

Teramo is a city and comune in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, the capital of the province of Teramo.The city, from Rome, is situated between the highest mountains of the Apennines and the Adriatic coast...

. Relative to the city center

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

, the village is 7.49 kilometers northwest, via the SS81 Piceno-Aprutina state road.

History

There is a Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 church in the village, the Chiesa Santa Maria ad Melatinum, which dates back to the 15th century and is located on a hill towards Garrano Alto, an adjacent village slightly closer to Gran Sasso

Gran Sasso

Gran Sasso d'Italia is a mountain located in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. The Gran Sasso forms the centerpiece of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park which was established in 1993 and holds the highest mountains in continental Italy south of the Alps and is part of the...

. The word Melatinum refers to the Melatini, who were an influential family of Lombard

Lombards

The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

 origin that had established themselves as the feudal rulers of the Teramo area beginning in the 13th century. This church suffered some non-critical structural damage during an earthquake in April 2009

2009 L'Aquila earthquake

The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake occurred in the region of Abruzzo, in central Italy. The main shock occurred at 3:32 local time on 6 April 2009, and was rated 5.8 on the Richter scale and 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale; its epicentre was near L'Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo, which together...

.

Some of the roads in Garrano Basso are still unpaved and the old building that once housed an elementary school for the village has remained empty for years. In May 1993, the Santa Maria Madre della Fiducia rehabilitation center for drug-addicted youth was opened here by the Comunita` Mondo Nuovo which operates several such centers in Abruzzo. In 2005 new streetlights were installed by the municipal government of the Comune of Teramo from the village central plaza leading up the road to the church.

External links

• Garrano Basso: A Lovely Village in Abruzzo, Italy