History of Sulmona

The Peasant Revolt of the '29

At the end of the '29 summer the economy of Italy, and as a consequence our city's one, was not good. Peasants, who hardly earned their living by farming, had to tolerate a lot of duties and taxes on the carriage of grapes, potatoes, wheat, legumes and so on, within the town walls. Moreover, the particular structure of Sulmona made the situation heavier: the medieval walls, were, in fact well preserved, and it allowed excisemen an easier control of the people moving through the numerous inescapable town doors.

The more and more heavy situation was brought to a breakdown, and the peasants of the area of Sulmona decided to meet in a peasant commettee, which was received by the Chief Constable, who agreed to a reduction of the taxes. But it didn't actually happened, even better, an evening a group of women, returning within the walls had to pay a new duty: this time it was the carriage of the 'cannizze', a little bundle of sticks used to warm their houses.

A bad mood widespread very soon and , a day early in the morning, some peasants armed with hoes, pitchforks and cudgels moved, with the intention to solve the situation , to Porta Pacentrana. Here there was one of the wooden sentry boxes. The enraged crowd, threw the sentry box all along the descent, till the Vella River.

The protest swiftly went on, and the crowd destroyed the 'garitte' of both Porta Japasseri and St. Panfilo, which controlled the access from the station way. The march, now unrestrainable, grew bigger and in half a day all the other sentry boxes along the walls were destroyed.

The last mission of the crowd was the Chief Constable, luckely protected by scarce police. Surrounded, he was brought to the station and compelled to leave for L'Aquila. At 11 o' clock the march broke up and the revolt ended. The duties and the sentry boxes disappeared too, but the regime didn't tolerate this revolt, which had a great echo at a political level. Because of the revolt the city, now picked on, wasn't helped for her designation as a new province. For different reasons still today in Sulmona and in Abruzzi there is a 'province question' still unresolved, seeing our city penalized.