Pretoro is a town of about 1,100 inhabitants situated in Majella National Park

Majella National Park

The Majella National Park is a national park located in the provinces of Chieti, Pescara and L'Aquila, in the region Abruzzo, Italy....

, in the province of Chieti

Province of Chieti

The Province of Chieti is a province in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Chieti.It has an area of 2,588 km², and a total population of 381,993...

, 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. Though geographically in central 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 Abruzzi were a constituent part of the Kingdom of Naples

Kingdom of Naples

The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...

 and thus the Mezzogiorno

Mezzogiorno

The Midday is a wide definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the southern half of the Italian state, encompassing the southern section of the continental Italian Peninsula and the two major islands of Sicily and Sardinia, in addition to a large number of minor islands...

. To this day it is considered by no less than ISTAT (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica

Istituto Nazionale di Statistica

Istituto Nazionale di Statistica is the Italian national statistical institute.-History:Istat was created in 1926 to collect and organize essential data about the nation. Administering the census is one of its activities...

) to be part of southern Italy. It is located on a steep hillside on the eastern side of the Maiella mountains. Its proximity to the ski slopes of Passo Lanciano, guarantees the availability of winter sports, while the town is also only 20 minutes by car from the Adriatic Sea.

History

The area in which Pretoro is located has been occupied since prehistoric times; remains from that period have been found here, as well as inscriptions in Latin from the Roman era

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

. The first documented mention of the town is in a 12th century record. Pretoro's name may derive from the word "preta", an earlier form of the word "pietra" or stone. The town stands on a rocky landscape that does not lend itself to farming. Because the town is surrounded by beech-forest, the people of Pretoro have specialized over the centuries in woodcarving.

Attractions

Pretoro is composed of a cluster of stone buildings which climb the steep mountainside; the oldest part of the town is at the highest point, while down below is a newer section.

The most important memento of Pretoro's past is the 13th century Sanctuary of the Madonna della Mazza, located a little above the town. This was a hermitage built by Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 and Cistercian monks from Santa Maria Arabona at Manoppello

Manoppello

Manoppello is a comune in Abruzzo, in the province of Pescara, Italy.It is famous for having a church which contains an image which has been suggested to be the Veil of Veronica.Also notable is the Romanesque abbey of Santa Maria Arabona....

. An important work of art is the 16th century sculpture of the Pietà preserved in the church of San Nicola.

Within the town's territory is a nature preserve, the Riserva Naturale Valle del Foro.

Additional and Interesting Information

The townsfolk spoke their own dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 with some very interesting pronunciations for words and/or expressions. For example, the translation for the following would be:

English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 I went out last night.
Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 Sono uscito ieri sera.
Pretorese So 'schoit sair.

There have been several books published also, including a 'census' from 1745.