D'Avalos Palace and the Neapolitan Garden

The d’Avalos Palace towers above the Vasto seashore from the hill on which the village is perched. The old residence of the prestigious d’Avalos family is one of the most significant examples of Renaissance architecture in Abruzzo. The Palace was built on the remains of a 14^th century building, of which several decorative details are kept: an evidence of this is the wonderful double lancet windows recently discovered in the perimeter wall overlooking the adjacent garden.
After the Anjou’s period, in 1427 the Palace was enlarged and decorated by Giacomo Caldora, the lord of the city at the time, who then passed it to the d'Avalos, a noble family of Spanish origins who ruled the city uninterruptedly from 1496 to 1798. Once they consolidated their domain, the d’Avalos, wishing to transform their residence, endowed it with the magnificence of Iberian courts.
The Palace was briefly also the home of Vittoria Colonna, one of the most illustrious and cultured women of the Renaissance, wife of Francesco Ferrante d’Avalos, as well as friend and confidant of Michelangelo Buonarroti, with whom she was linked by a deep intellectual affinity.
The Neapolitan Garden is part of the palace and is reached through the entrance yard, opening out over the sea. After a recent restoration, it regained its original late 18^th century architectonical layout. Today as in the past, among the hedges of box bushes and roses, it is the reign of orange trees, and bushes of lavender, rosemary, sage, American creepers, jasmine, geraniums, bougainvillas and climbing roses. This green area is in the shape of a cross through which little perpendicular pathways run, covered by a bower, a model common to many Neapolitan gardens and cloisters of the Baroque age. You can reach the panoramic terrace after passing through the pathway that runs alongside the palace set in the midst of plants, headstones and various archaeological artworks. The archaeological section hosts statues of women, Afrodite’s heads, Eros, Zeus and Sileno, besides a series of small bronze statues, all representing Eracle.
With the death of Cesare Michelangelo d’Avalos in 1729, the progeny preferred to stay permanently in the court of Naples, thus the decadence of the complex was inevitable.
Today the palace hosts the Art Gallery and the Civic Museums in which an interesting numismatic collection is kept.