Located about 80 kilometers from Chieti, at 575 meters above sea level, the small town of Fallo stands on a charming hill, rising from the Sangro river which flows below, gurgling, through rocks and pebbles, through the better know towns of Quadri and Villa S. Maria, just 4 kilometers away.
The old town was slightly closer to the river, on the hillside which stretches right above the Sangro river and which today is called Contrada S. Nicola. Legend has it that the people living in Fallo were forced to leave the town and move to its current position, due to an invasion of termites.
According to some writers, these termites were the Saraceni who spread like ants, leaving nothing behind to the poor inhabitants of the villages that they invaded.
The name of Fallo derives from the ancient FALDUS, almost to indicate the site: on the mountain slope, and it is with this name that it is found in many antique documents of the diocese of Chieti.
The town of Fallo borders with the nearby Civitaluparella, Villa S. Maria, Pietraferrazzana; it does not extend very far, its inhabitants are few and it has no hamlets.
Historical facts
The beginnings of the town are completely unknown; however Fallo already existed in the year 1000, and, according to the episcopal archives of Chieti, in the year 1200 Faldus was already visited periodically by the Bishop of Chieti.
Unfortunately there is no historical news on Fallo, leaving research on the history of our town with long periods of obscurity.
More reliable news can be traced back to the period under the Angioini rule (1266-1442) and the Aragonese domination (1282-1503). In particular the fight between the two dynasties for the conquest of the Reign of Naples involved all the populations and the feuds that were part of the Reign, therefore also Abruzzo.
In 1304 the Caldora family received the feuds of Pietraferrazzana, Villa S. Maria, Fallo and Civitaluparella from King Charles II, named the lame-legged, (who reigned between 1285 and 1309), ruling over these areas for almost two centuries and extending its dominion over many other castles throughout this period. Celidonio tells us about what life was like in those castles.
During the period of the battles for succession between Angioini of Naples and Angioini of Hungary, called Durazzeschi (1381-1414), in 1390 king Ladislao granted several tax exemptions to Lanciano in order to be able to buy back the feud of Rizzacorno. On May 17, 1391 he granted Civita Borrella to Lanciano and in 1392 he granted Civita Luparella inclusive of all barony and the castles of Liquadri, Pizzoferrato, Fallo, Pesco Pinnataro, Sant'Angelo, Rosello, Castel Pito, taken away from the rebel Caldora.
Antonio Caldora, after the fall of the Angioini, fell definitively, and he that had been at the head of a formidable army in Italy, was forced to take refuge in his castle in Civitaluparella. After that, in order to avoid being locked up and assaulted, he chose to flee from the reign, taking refuge in the Papal State and ending up living as a beggar in the city of Jesi, where he died a premature death, perhaps painful and in shame.
There are writings that in these circumstances the inhabitants of the castles under his rule went to plunder his houses, destroying them. This is also how the castle of Civitaluparella came to an end, also destroyed by the surrounding populations (therefore, also by Fallo) "so that the hateful landowners" would no longer return. And they never did.
The feuds of Caldora were assigned to the king who, on May 17, 1467, claiming that the lands of Palena e Lama were legitimately his as a result of the rebellion of Antonio Caldora, gave them away to Matteo di Capua for the many services rendered. For the same reason, the castles of Anversa, Campo di Giove and Cansano were assigned to the king, who sold them in 1479 to the Procida family.
The reign of the Aragonese, headed by Ferrante I and his descendents, lasted between 1458 and 1494.
After the fall of the Aragonese dynasty, news on Fallo and its inhabitants are rare and fragmented. The only reliable source is Giustiniani, who quotes Fallo in his "Dizionario Geografico-ragionato del Regno di Napoli".
In the past, the inhabitants of Fallo dedicated themselves to agriculture, and at the time of the "counting of the fireplaces " they were taxed as follows: in 1532, for 32 fireplaces, the same number was considered in 1545, whereas in 1561 the 49 fireplaces increased to 49. In 1591 the fireplaces decreased to 40, in 1648 they increased again to 49 and in 1669 remained at 45. At the beginning of the 800s, 500 inhabitants were considered (100 fireplaces).
In 1583 Fallo and Civitaluparella were passed under the power of Giulio Cesare Rossillo, who sold them in 1590 to Giuseppe Melucci di Rocca Cinquemiglia, for the sum of 18000 ducats.
Up until 1800, Fallo, as elsewhere, was subjugated by the most avaricious feudalism and the poor people were subject to all the injustices and abuses of the owners. There is no need to add that trying to oppose such injustices was completely useless.
Until the Congress of Vienna (1815), Abruzzo was part of the reign of Naples. After Napoleon's 100 days, which ended with the defeat at Waterloo and his exile to St. Helena, Abruzzo became part of the reign of the two Sicilies.
A law by Joseph Bonapart, king of Naples, dated January 19th, 1807, mentions Fallo as a town within the district of Villa Santa Maria.
With the liberation of the Italian South carried out by Garibaldi and the Thousand (1860), the annexation of the reign of the two Sicilies and the proclamation of the reign of Italy (1861), Fallo was included in the district of Lanciano and the province of Abruzzo Citeriore. This can be construed by the "Topographical Dictionary of Townships" " composed by Zuccagni-Orlandini and printed in Florence in 1861.
This is the state that it remained in until 1927-1928, when the town of Fallo was suppressed and annexed to Civitaluparella. At that time, the Town of Fallo had assets of 18 thousand Lire, an amount which was deposited at the Fallo post office.
Fallo regained its autonomy only in 1962, becoming once again an independent town.
FALLO