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is an ancient town at the foot of the monte Velino, at 6,4Km north of Avezzano. Alba fucens was the name given by the Romans to a town originally built by the Equi, and later occupied by the Marsi in the IV century B.C., which was called by them Fucentia.
Alba Fucens dominated the valley of lake Fucino, the second largest lake in central Italy with a surface area of about 200 square kms, where fishing was a lively resource and naval battles were also held by the Romans. (The lake was partially drained by the Romans under Claudius, and then by prince Torlonia in the late 19th century.)
Between 321 and 303 B.C. the Romans had defeated the Italic Alliance of the Marsi, Peligni, Vestini, Marrucini and Frentani, and decided to establish a colony of 6000 inhabitants in Fucentia - Alba , to control the whole territory; Alba Fucens, whose inhabitants were called Albenses, became a rich and powerful town, in 301 was even allowed to have its own mint and in 191 B.C. became a municipium.
Alba Fucens in the I century had become the most famous Roman town in the Aprutium, a key centre on the road Tiburtina Valeria, which connected Rome to the Adriatic. Its destruction and oblivion, as with all Roman towns, was a consequence of the decadence of the Roman Empire and the invasion of the barbarians.
In the Middle Ages a castle was built on a small hill just over the Roman town, destroyed by the barbarians. On a hill on the other side, where probably a Roman temple rose, Benedictine monks built the fine Romanesque church of S. Pietro, with a convent where a new archeaological museum has now been established.
For thousands of years the place was abandoned to devastations and pillage, until in 1949 a joint venture between the Italian Government and the belgian University of Lowain started excavations that went on for decades under the direction of such renowned archaeologists as F. De Visscher, F. De Ruyt, J. Mertens and L. Reekmans of the University of Louwain, and M. de Laet of the University of Gand.
The ruins offer a cross-section of the life of the Roman town: the ancient roads, the Forum, the amphitheatre, the doors and market centre, the baths, the Macellum, the square houses, the sophisticated aqueduct and sewage system.
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