A Historical Tour of a Mountain Pass near Tagliacozzo

by Georg Heinrich Busse, 1844.

I was delighted to come across this amazing image (thanks again to the Piccola biblioteca marsicana) from one hundred and eighty years ago showing the church of Santa Maria del Soccorso, the twelve stations of the Calvary and its little chapel. Today these buildings remain in much the same appearance, although over the years houses have been built around the church.

The year before Busse created his painting Edward Lear and his friend Charles Knight came on horseback into Abruzzo from the direction of Rome using the winding path you can see in the centre of the picture. Lear painted two equally impressive views of the town, one from further back behind the Soccorso (near the high bank on the right) and another from the plain below. Lear also enthusiastically described what he saw from up on high…

I have never seen anything more majestic than the approach to Tagliacozzo. It is a precipitous ravine, almost artificial in appearance and, by some, indeed, considered as having been partly formed by the Romans, for the transit of the Via Valeria. A monastery, with a Calvario, or range of shrines, stands at the entrance of this extraordinary gorge, the portals of which are, on [the] one hand, huge crags, crested with a ruined castle; on the other, perpendicular precipices; between them is placed the town, receding step by step to the plain below, while the picture is completed by three towering peaks of Velino, entirely filling up the opening of the ravine.

Although these two religious buildings are quite far from the Piazza del’Obelisco in the centre of town (and the last you will pass as you leave the town) they have been the subject of many paintings and photos over the past two centuries. Amy Atkinson painted the chapel in 1907 for the book ‘In the Abruzzi’ and photographs have long been featured in guidebooks on the region.

Today – Photos by Pete Austin

Author: Peter Austin

A shed building, bass playing, wine drinking, mountain loving guy who adores photography and bought a home in Abruzzo 2 decades ago.

He's also an Associate Member of the Life In Abruzzo cultural association and moderator of the Life in Abruzzo private Fb group