Campli

Discover Campli

Twenty-eight wooden steps, polished smooth by the knees of pilgrims over centuries, rise inside a sanctuary behind the Farnese palace in a hill town at 393 m (1,289 ft) above sea level. The portal through which visitors enter was carved with diamond-point rustication and transported from the suppressed convent of Sant’Onofrio. Above the staircase, frescoes attributed to the Teramo painter Vincenzo Baldati cover every vault and lunette with scenes of the Passion of Christ, the colours still readable in the subdued interior light.

Deciding what to see in Campli is straightforward once the five principal monuments are mapped: the Scala Santa sanctuary, the Museo Nazionale Archeologico inside the 14th-century Farnese palace, the Church of San Pietro, the Church of San Paolo, and the historic centre itself, listed among I Borghi più belli d’Italia, the national register of Italy’s most beautiful villages.

The town sits at 393 m (1,289 ft) in the province of Teramo, Abruzzo, inside the territory of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park, and counts approximately 7,167 inhabitants. Visitors to Campli find a compact hill settlement where documented history, religious architecture, and a food tradition stretching back to 1964 occupy a walkable area.

History of Campli

The earliest documented layer of Campli’s history emerges from its landscape: the walls of the Church of San Pietro incorporate Ancient Roman stone fragments alongside High Medieval carved pieces, indicating a continuous presence on the site well before any medieval foundation. The town’s position in the Teramo hill belt, close to the Adriatic piedmont routes, made it a natural point of settlement and later a contested asset between the competing powers that shaped central Italy’s interior during the medieval period.

By the 14th century Campli had become part of the holdings of the Farnese family, one of the most powerful dynasties in Renaissance Italy.

The Farnese palace, built in that same century, still stands today and houses the Museo Nazionale Archeologico. It was during this period that the composer Nicolaus Ricii de Nucella Campli was born in or near the town, leaving his name as one of the earliest documented cultural figures connected to the settlement. The Farnese connection gave Campli a degree of political protection and architectural investment visible in the construction programme that produced both the palace and the fourteenth-century Church of San Paolo adjacent to the Scala Santa sanctuary.

The 16th century brought military disruption. In 1557, French forces under François de Guise captured the town during his campaign against Spanish control of the Kingdom of Naples. That campaign ultimately failed, and Campli passed back into the orbit of Spanish-controlled southern Italy. The town survived the episode without losing its main buildings, and the Farnese legacy in the urban fabric remained intact through subsequent centuries. In the modern period, Campli gained recognition on the national register of beautiful villages and became the administrative seat for a municipality that includes several surrounding hamlets within the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park territory.

What to see in Campli, Abruzzo: top attractions

Scala Santa — Sanctuary of the Holy Staircase

The staircase consists of 28 steps of smoothed, polished wood enclosed within a sanctuary built directly behind Palazzo Farnese, adjoining the fourteenth-century Church of San Paolo.

The religious significance of the site rests on a papal grant: in 1772, Pope Clement XIV extended to this staircase the same indulgences already attached to the famous Scala Santa in Rome, a concession that drew pilgrims from across the Teramo diocese and beyond. Pope John Paul II later extended those benefits to cover all Fridays of Lent, broadening the calendar of active pilgrimage. The interior walls carry a full cycle of frescoes depicting the Passion of Christ — on the right wall, Christ in the Garden of Olives, the Flagellation, and Christ Carrying the Cross; on the left, the Capture, Ecce Homo, and the Crucifixion. The ceiling is decorated with angels bearing the instruments of the Passion, and the entire decorative programme, including the ceiling, is attributed to Vincenzo Baldati (1759–1825). The entrance portal, worked with diamond-point rustication, came from the dismantled convent of Sant’Onofrio and dates to the 16th century. Devotees ascend the staircase on their knees; observers who prefer not to participate in the ritual can still view the frescoes from the base of the climb.

Museo Nazionale Archeologico — National Archaeological Museum

The museum occupies the ground floor and upper rooms of the 14th-century Farnese palace, the most imposing civic structure in the historic centre of Campli. The building’s exterior stonework reflects the construction standards of Farnese patronage in the Abruzzo hill towns: regular ashlar courses, deep window reveals, and a courtyard arrangement that originally served both administrative and residential functions. The collections document the pre-Roman and Roman-era populations of the Teramo territory, providing a material record that complements the fragmentary stone inscriptions embedded in the walls of the nearby Church of San Pietro.

For visitors organising a day in Campli, the museum and the church together offer a coherent reading of the area’s ancient occupation. The Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park provides a broader geographical context for understanding how this territory was settled and used across millennia. Check current opening hours directly with the museum before visiting, as seasonal schedules apply.

Church of San Pietro

The walls of San Pietro function as a physical archive: Ancient Roman carved stones and High Medieval fragments have been incorporated directly into the masonry, visible to anyone who examines the exterior surfaces at close range. This practice of reuse was common in central Italian hill towns where dressed stone from earlier structures was too valuable to leave unused, but the density of spolia in San Pietro’s fabric is notable.

The church predates the Farnese period in the town’s history and represents the earliest standing religious structure in Campli. Inside, the spatial organisation follows the pattern of a Romanesque hall church, though subsequent interventions have modified the original arrangement. The building sits within the historic centre at a short walk from the Farnese palace, making it a logical first stop before moving to the museum and the Scala Santa. Those with an interest in medieval architectural reuse will find the exterior walls worth a slow circuit.

Palazzo Farnese and the Historic Centre

The Farnese palace gives the upper town its primary visual reference point: a 14th-century structure that housed the administrative reach of one of central Italy’s dominant dynasties and today contains the national archaeological collections. The historic centre around it reflects the town’s inclusion in I Borghi più belli d’Italia, a designation based on criteria including the integrity of the built fabric, the quality of the public spaces, and the maintenance of historic streetscapes. Campli’s centre is compact enough to cover on foot in a single morning, with the palace, the two churches — San Paolo and San Pietro — and the Scala Santa sanctuary forming a connected circuit of less than 500 m (0.3 mi).

The fourteenth-century Church of San Paolo stands directly next to the Scala Santa, and its exterior provides a visual anchor for the whole religious complex. For those arriving from the nearby village of Civitella del Tronto — a fortified settlement approximately 10 km (6.2 mi) to the north — Campli’s lower-lying historic centre offers a complementary perspective on Farnese-era architecture in the Teramo hills.

Church of San Paolo and Its Setting

San Paolo is a fourteenth-century church that forms the immediate architectural frame for the Scala Santa sanctuary, positioned on the same plot and sharing a common access path from the main square. Its age places it in the same construction phase as the Farnese palace, suggesting a coordinated programme of religious and civic building under Farnese patronage during the 1300s. The church’s exterior is relatively austere compared to the ornamented portal of the Scala Santa beside it, which heightens the visual impact of that portal’s diamond-point carving when approached from the street.

Inside San Paolo, the spatial relationship with the adjacent sanctuary is evident: the two buildings share a wall, and the religious geography of the site — palace, church, and pilgrimage staircase within metres of each other — reflects the way Farnese patronage integrated secular power and devotional infrastructure. Visitors who arrive early in the morning, before group tours from Teramo reach the town, will find the complex considerably quieter.

Local food and typical products of Campli

The food culture of the Teramo hill zone, where Campli sits at 393 m (1,289 ft), draws on the pastoral and agricultural traditions of the Gran Sasso piedmont. Pork, grain, and legumes have historically defined the diet of these hill settlements, with techniques oriented toward preservation — salting, smoking, and slow roasting — that suited both the climate and the economics of a self-sufficient agricultural community. The Farnese period brought some degree of urban provisioning to Campli, but the surrounding territory continued to supply the bulk of what was eaten, a pattern that persists in the approach to local cooking today.

The dish that has given Campli its clearest culinary identity is porchetta italica, a whole roasted pig prepared with a specific technique that involves seasoning the interior cavity before slow-roasting the entire animal until the skin achieves a uniform crackling.

The pork is carved and served in thick slices, typically between two pieces of bread — the sandwich format that forms the centrepiece of the town’s annual festival competition. The result is a combination of fat, lean meat, and crisped skin in each portion, with the seasoning absorbed into the flesh during the roasting process. This preparation distinguishes itself from the porchetta styles of Lazio or Umbria through the choice of spicing and the sourcing of the pig from local breeds raised in the Abruzzo hills.

No certified PDO or PGI product is documented in the available sources specifically for Campli, but the porchetta italica as prepared and promoted in the town has been the subject of organised promotion since 1964, when the Sagra della porchetta italica was established — the first such festival in the Abruzzo region and one of the earliest food festivals of its kind in Italy. The festival founder, Fernando Aurini, used the event deliberately to publicise the town and its food tradition, publishing a practical tourist guide each year to accompany the celebration.

The August festival remains the single most important occasion to encounter the full range of local pork preparations in one place.

Crowds of up to 10,000 people attended in the mid-1960s, and the event has continued annually without interruption since its founding. For visitors travelling through the Teramo province in late summer, the festival provides a concrete reason to schedule a stop in Campli rather than passing through. Local trattorie and market stalls in the surrounding area also carry porchetta during the summer months outside the festival dates, though availability is more variable in winter.

Festivals, events and traditions of Campli

The Sagra della porchetta italica — a traditional local food festival dedicated to Italian-style roast pork — takes place every August in Campli and has done so continuously since 1964, making it the oldest such event in Abruzzo. The festival was founded by Fernando Aurini with the stated aim of attracting visitors and disseminating information about a town that had formed part of the Farnese family’s territorial holdings. One of its defining competitive elements is a pork sandwich cookoff, in which local producers and preparers compete on the quality of their porchetta served between bread.

The event drew crowds of up to 10,000 people in the mid-1960s, a figure that reflects the speed with which it established itself as a regional reference point.

The Scala Santa sanctuary draws thousands of devotees annually, particularly during Lent, when the papal indulgences granted by Pope Clement XIV in 1772 — and extended by Pope John Paul II to all Fridays of Lent — make the pilgrimage climb spiritually significant for practising Catholics. This religious calendar gives Campli a second distinct season of activity, concentrated in spring, that runs parallel to the summer food festival. Together, the August sagra and the Lenten pilgrimage season define the two main periods of external visitor concentration in the town each year, with the shoulder months of May, June, and September offering quieter conditions for those interested primarily in the architectural and archaeological sites.

When to visit Campli, Italy and how to get there

The question of the best time to visit Abruzzo’s hill villages depends largely on what a visitor wants to prioritise. For Campli specifically, August brings the Sagra della porchetta italica and the fullest calendar of local activity, but also the highest visitor numbers in the province. Spring — particularly the weeks of Lent — activates the pilgrimage calendar at the Scala Santa and sees the surrounding Gran Sasso landscape at its greenest, with temperatures at 393 m (1,289 ft) remaining moderate even when the Adriatic coast below is already warm. September and October offer stable weather, reduced visitor pressure, and the added advantage of the autumn harvest cycle in the Teramo countryside. Winter is quiet; some smaller sites may have restricted hours.

Getting to Campli from the nearest major city is straightforward. Teramo lies approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) to the southwest and is the natural base for a day trip to Campli. From Teramo, the drive follows the provincial road network and takes roughly 20 to 25 minutes by car.

Those travelling from Rome — approximately 200 km (124 mi) to the south — can reach Teramo via the A24 motorway (exit Teramo) in around two hours, then continue by car to Campli. Pescara, the main Adriatic hub with the nearest commercial airport, sits approximately 65 km (40 mi) from Campli; transfer time by car is around one hour depending on traffic on the A25 and connecting roads. Travellers arriving by rail can use Trenitalia services to Teramo station, then continue to Campli by taxi or rental car, as no direct bus service between Teramo station and Campli is documented in the available sources. If you arrive by car, parking is available at the edge of the historic centre; the streets within the medieval perimeter are narrow and in places restricted. International visitors should note that English is rarely spoken in smaller local shops and restaurants in Campli, and carrying cash in euros is advisable, as card payment terminals are not universally available in the hill villages of the Teramo interior.

Travellers with time for more than a single stop in the Teramo hills can combine Campli with Barete, a smaller village within the Gran Sasso park territory that shares the same upland landscape context, or extend southward through Abruzzo toward villages in the Chieti and Pescara provinces.

The villages of Bomba and Altino, further south in the region, offer additional examples of Abruzzo’s hill settlement pattern for visitors building a longer itinerary across the region. Campli, Abruzzo, Italy sits at the northern end of this geographic arc, making it a logical first or last stop on any circuit of the region’s inland comuni.