What to see in Acquasanta Terme, itinerary including the main places of interest, including the spa, the Ponte Vecchio, the Church of the Maddalena and the Castel di Luco.
Tourist information
Town of the Marche in the province of Ascoli Piceno, Acquasanta Terme is a town located in the territory of the Gran Sasso National Park, between the Monti della Laga to the south and the Sibillini Mountains to the north, in the upper valley of the Tronto river, surrounded by thick woods of chestnuts, beeches, firs and oaks.
The name of the town derives from the sulphurous water that gushes out of it, already known by the ancient Romans with the name of Vicus ad Aquas, and used as a resting station by the Roman legionaries who, returning from the battles, needed treatment and rest.
Still today the sulphurous and salsobromoiodic waters naturally flow at a temperature of about 38 ° C and are used for thermal baths, inhalations and irrigations, in the Acquasanta Thermal Bath.
Important Roman monuments can be admired, including the bridge over the Garrafo, the first stone bridge of Salaria, built with a single round arch.
In the mid-nineteenth century the work was doubled towards the valley and a modern seven-arch viaduct was placed on the living structure of the bridge.
What see
In the hamlet of Ponte d’Arli there are the Roman walls placed in support of via Salaria in the Augustan period and the sixteenth-century Ponte Vecchio, built on the Tronto river by the Comacini masters, following the construction systems used by the Romans.
Near the bridge there is a 17th century water mill.
Among the religious buildings in the city center, it is worth mentioning the Church of San Giovanni Battista, containing two paintings by Giulio Cantalamessa, painter and art critic of the nineteenth century Ascoli, and the Church of Maddalena, founded in the fourteenth century, enlarged and transformed over the centuries later.
Originally the Church was part of a monastic complex, with a hospitable annex for the care of the sick and orphans.
Near the inhabited center there is the fascinating fortress of Castel di Luco, dating back to the fourteenth century, which still retains its aspect of medieval architectural structure, almost intact.
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The construction, with an elliptical plan, stands on the edge of a rocky spur, surrounded by walls and defense towers, near the medieval village of Paggese.
