Charlemagne's cathedral dominated Penne. He had made Penne district capital, but with the new cathedral came a bishop, and it was the bishop who ran Penne. Saint Francis of Assisi himself came to bless Penne and found the first convent in Abruzzo. By the end of the 13th century there were convents and monasteries run by Franciscans, Sisters of St. Clare, Cistercians, Dominicans, Jerusalemites, and Celestines, followers of the hermit Pope of Abruzzo.
The convent attached to the Dominican church - founded in 1200 - has now become part of the town hall.
Along with the religious orders came an explosion in church building. All the main churches in Penne date from this period, though most of their interior paintings were removed later, and new facades added. The only church to survive almost entirely in its original form is St. Maria in Colle Romano, built in the 13th century.
With the religious buildings came new wealth; the town became able to support a population of artisans and craftsmen. Farmers came from the surrounding countryside to sell in the market. The town now expanded back up Colle Castello, and along with the religious buildings came new civic buildings: the Hospital of San Massimo was the basis for the modern hospital at the top of Colle Castello.
The six neighbourhoods which today compete in the Palio reflect this new working and trading population. Three are on Colle Castello: Da Capo, Di Mezzo, and Da Piedi, and three on Colle Sacro: Di Piazza, San Comizio, and San Paolo. The town statutes gave each neighbourhood the right to elect representatives to the Grand Council, as well as electing the officals for their own neighbourhoods.
But it was still the church and the barons that ruled.
On one side of the main square are the Town Council buildings. Just inside the entrance is the battered face of a monk - Luca da Penne, after whom the main square is named.
Luca was Penne's first famous citizen, a legal theorist who worked in the court of Naples before returning to Penne. His main claim to fame was a proof that the uncultivated wild land of the woods and mountains was not common property to be used by all, but property of the barons. Luca's tomb fell into disrepair over the centuries; his statue was rescued in the 18th century and moved to where it can be seen today.
The end of Penne's good fortune came abruptly in 1436. The Normans had taken Abruzzo from the Franks in the 12th century, making Penne nominally part of the Kingdom of Sicily. In practice, Penne was practically independent, capital of it's own small 'Province of Penne'. Penne's nearest competitor was L'Aquila, over the other side of the Gran Sasso, and part of the Kingdom of Naples. When the Spanish Aragonese kings took Naples from the French Anjou family, L'Aquila sided with Anjou. While L'Aquila underwent repeated sieges by the Aragonese, Penne took advantage of L'Aquila's temporary weakness and seized control of the neigbouring mountain villages. It was a mistake: when L'Aquila recovered, their army marched on Penne. Penne was besieged, lost, and was partly destroyed. The area outside the main gate of Penne was once inhabited, and included the church of San Francisco; it was never rebuilt, and is now the public gardens. From now on Penne was part of the Aragonese kingdom of Naples.
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