| Province of Chieti | |
| Native Name Lang: | it |
| Settlement Type: | Province |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | Region |
| Subdivision Name1: | Abruzzo |
| Seat Type: | Capital(s) |
| Seat: | Chieti |
| Parts Type: | Comuni |
| Parts Style: | para |
| P1: | 104 |
| Leader Party: | PD |
| Leader Title: | President |
| Leader Name: | Mario Pupillo |
| Unit Pref: | Metric |
| Area Total Km2: | 2599.58 |
| Population Total: | 387649 |
| Population As Of: | 30 September 2017 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Demographics Type2: | GDP |
| Demographics2 Footnotes: | [1] |
| Demographics2 Title1: | Total |
| Demographics2 Info1: | €9.551 billion (2015) |
| Demographics2 Title2: | Per capita |
| Demographics2 Info2: | €24,374 (2015) |
| Timezone1: | CET |
| Utc Offset1: | +1 |
| Timezone1 Dst: | CEST |
| Utc Offset1 Dst: | +2 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 66010-66012, 66014-66023, 66026, 66030-66034, 66036-66038, 66040-66043, 66045-66047, 66050-66052, 66054 |
| Area Code Type: | Telephone prefix |
| Area Code: | 085, 0871, 0872, 0873 |
| Registration Plate: | CH |
| Blank Name Sec1: | ISTAT |
The province of Chieti (Italian: provincia di Chieti; Abruzzese: Neapolitan: pruvìngie de Chjìte) is a province in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Its provincial capital is the city Chieti, which has a population of 50,770 inhabitants. The province has a total population of 387,649 inhabitants and spans an area of 2599.58km2. The province contains 104 comuni (: comune). Its provincial president is Mario Pupillo.[2]
Chieti's cathedral was first constructed during the 9th century but was reconstructed during the 13th century. The province contains the National Archaeology Museum of Abruzzo, in Italian the Museo Archeologico Nazionale d'Abruzzo, which contains items from the area prior to Roman rule.
It was first settled by the Osci people near the Pescara River. In around 1000 BCE it was conquered by Marsi and Marrucini people. The city was also lived in by the Greeks, who named it Teate. It was conquered by the Romans in 305 BCE but after the fall of Rome in 476 CE, Theodoric the Great gained ownership of the city and it was subsequently used as a Lombard fortress. The city was then owned by the Franks, the Normans, the Hohenstaufen, the Angevins and Aragonese rulers until strong control over the city was gained by Charles V of France. Chieti was made the capital of Abruzzo Citra under its period of rule by the House of Bourbon.[3]
The province of Chieti contains Ortona, a town founded by Fretani people for trading with the Greeks, which was the scene of a World War II battle between German and predominantly British and Canadian forces; over 2,000 civilians died and the town was largely destroyed.[3]
The province of Chieti is one of four provinces in the region of Abruzzo, on the eastern coast of Italy. It is the most easternmost province in the region and is bounded to the northeast by the Adriatic Sea. The province of Pescara lies to the north and the province of L'Aquila to the northwest. To the south lies the province of Isernia and the province of Campobasso lies to the south east, both these provinces being part of the region of Molise. The provincial capital is Chieti, situated on a ridge a few miles inland and just south of the River Aterno-Pescara, which flows into the sea at nearby Pescara.[4]
There has been a movement by farmers away from the land and the area. The outflow has been greatest from the hilly and mountainous areas, where the holdings are small and worked by the families who own them. In the period 1951 to 1971, the number of people employed in agriculture in Chieti fell from over 80% to around 45%, the number employed in industry tripled to around 20% and the number employed in the service sector, tripled to around 30%.[5]
Under the church of SS. Pietro e Paolo and the adjoining houses are extensive substructures (in opus reticulatum and brickwork) of the 1st century CE, belonging to a building erected by M. Vectius Marcellus[6] and Helvidia Priscilla. There are also remains of large reservoirs and of an ancient theatre. In the early 21st century, new archeological excavations are under way on the site of the former Campo Sportivo.
The old part of the town (centro storico) features a number of interesting buildings and churches dating from the 12th to the 18th century, including:
largest and oldest church in the town, mentioned in a document as early as 1195, with a tall bell tower. Damaged by the Turks in 1566,[7] and by a fire in 1645, it went a thorough restructuring in 1735 in which it got the current shape. It hosts one of alleged Jesus' crown of thorns (Sacra Spina).
Below the hill on which the town is located, the beach resort town of Marina di Vasto offers a large sandy beach and several hotels and other facilities.
Further north the coast becomes rocky and features interesting pebble and stone beaches and coves, as well as the typical trabocchi, that are typical wooden fishing machines of the Southern Abruzzo coast.
Amongst the most interesting natural areas, also featuring a number of sandy and rocky beaches, is the protected natural area of the Riserva Naturale di Punta Aderci,[10] whose beaches were voted in 2014 3rd of the top 20 beaches in Italy.[11]
The origins of Ortona are uncertain. Presumably, it was first inhabited by the Frentani, an Italic population. In 2005, during works near the Castle, a Bronze Age settlement was discovered, and the Roman town largely coincided with this first settlement. Some sections of paved roads and urban walls, as well as some archaeological findings are the only remains of this period. Ortona remained a part of the Roman Empire i.e., the Byzantine Empire for several centuries, before it was annexed by the Kingdom of the Lombards. In 803 the Franks incorporated Ortona into the county of Chieti. From that date on, the town remained tied to Chieti and its territory.In 1258 the relics of the Apostle Thomas were brought to Ortona by the sailor Leone Acciaiuoli. In the first half of the 15th century its walls were built, and during this period Ortona fought with the nearby town of Lanciano in a fierce war that ended in 1427. On June 30, 1447, ships from Venice destroyed the port of Ortona; consequently the king of Sicily at that time commissioned the construction of a Castle to dominate the renovated port. In 1582 the town was acquired by Margaret of Parma, daughter of Emperor Charles V and Duchess of Parma. In 1584 Margaret decided to build a great mansion, known as Palazzo Farnese, which was never completed due to her death.
After the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860, Ortona became one of the first sea resorts on the Adriatic Sea. On 9 September 1943, the royal family of the House of Savoy left German-occupied Italy from the port of Ortona. The defensive Gustav Line was established by the Germans at Ortona, extending towards Cassino on the opposite side of Italy. Ortona offered the Allies a supply port on the Adriatic and was fiercely defended by the Germans attracted the attention of that the international press in the struggle between the German paratroopers and the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade. This led to this battle being known as "Little Stalingrad".
The biggest church in Guardiagrele is Santa Maria Maggiore of which it has been written:[12]
In addition to Santa Maria Maggiore, there are several other churches and palazzi or mansions of various ages which are of architectural interest, including S. Nicola di Bari (founded in the 4th century), the convent of the Chapuchins (1599), Palazzo De Lucia (16th century), Palazzo Elisii (15th-18th century), the cloister of the Palazzo Comunale Piazza San Francesco (17th century) and Palazzo Marini (1391).
Museums include:
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Italy.
The province of Chieti is twinned with:
Malmö Municipality, Skåne, Sweden[13]| Quality of life indicators according to Il Sole 24 Ore in 2019 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Indicators | Values | |
| Wealth and consumption | ||
| Value added per inhabitant | €23,300 | |
| Per capita bank deposits | €19,777.2 | |
| Average monthly mortgage payments | €709.8 | |
| Average remaining financial exposure | €28,029.0 | |
| Average price of new 100 m2 apartments in semicentral zones of the capital | €1150.0 per m2 | |
| Average monthly rental fee of new 100 m2 apartments in semicentral zones of the capital | €350.0 | |
| Sold m2/offered m2 | 65.0% | |
| Average old-age pension amount | €981.3 | |
| Annual family expenditure on durable goods | €2191.0 | |
| Per capita protests | €9.7 | |
| Percentage of over 18 population with active credits | 38.3% | |
| Average income per taxpayer | €17,432 | |
| Income per taxpayer variation from 2007 to 2017 | 1.4% | |
| Environment and services | ||
| Average per capita local governments social expenditure for disabled people, senior citizens, and minors | €59.0 | |
| Percentage of residents dismissed from hospitals out of Region | 15.0% | |
| Air pollution in terms of PM10 | 24.0 μg/m³ | |
| Family doctors/1,000 inhabitants | 1.1 | |
| Pediatricians/1,000 inhabitants aged from 0 to 15 years old | 2.7 | |
| Justice and safety | ||
| Reported car thefts/100,000 inhabitants | 109.4 | |
| Reported home burglaries/100,000 inhabitants | 190.1 | |
| Reported rapes/100,000 inhabitants | 2.9 | |
| Reported crimes/100,000 inhabitants | 2679.0 | |
| Reported robberies/100,000 inhabitants | 20.2 | |
| Reported extortions/100,000 inhabitants | 11.4 | |
| Reported crimes associated with psychoactive drugs/100,000 inhabitants | 38.4 | |
| Reported frauds and informatics frauds/100,000 inhabitants | 265.1 | |
| Civil procedures/100,000 inhabitants | 2530.4 | |
| Percentage of cases pending more than three years | 0.1% | |
| Average duration of civil procedures | 244.4 days | |
| Defined procedures/new ones | 1.0 | |
| Reports of crimes associated with money laundering/100,000 inhabitants | 0.5 | |
| Reported fires/100,000 inhabitants | 7.8 | |
| Dead and injured people due to road accidents/1,000 inhabitants | 3.9 | |
| Business and occupation | ||
| Regular immigrants/resident population | 0.1% | |
| Unemployment rate (from 15 to 74 years old) | 11.3% | |
| Youth unemployment rate (from 15 to 29 years old) | 30.2% | |
| Goods exported abroad/GDP | 65.3% | |
| Inactive resident population | 34.9% | |
| Registered companies/100 inhabitants | 11.7 | |
| Innovative startups/1,000 capital companies | 3.3 | |
| Difference between new registered companies and ceased companies/companies registered in the former year | 0.1 | |
| Failing companies/companies registered | 1.4% | |
| Demography and society | ||
| Domestic net migration | -0.6% | |
| Mortality rate per 10,000 inhabitants | 11.8 | |
| Deaths due to heart attacks/1,000 inhabitants in five years | 3.1 | |
| Deaths due to tumors/1,000 inhabitants in five years | 13.5 | |
| Life expectancy at birth | 82.9 years | |
| Average number of people per family | 2.3 | |
| Life expectancy at birth increase | 2.1 years | |
| Households and unions/1,000 inhabitants | 497.3 | |
| Successful births/average resident population | 6.6 ‰ | |
| Population aged 65 and over/population aged 15–64 | 0.391 | |
| Population aged 65 and over/population aged 0–14 | 2.016 | |
| Difference between population that declares to become resident abroad and vice versa/1,000 inhabitants | 3.1 | |
| Years of schooling received on average by over 25 population | 10.4 | |
| Acquisition of citizenship/foreign residents | 2.2% | |
| Culture and free time | ||
| Cinema seats/100,000 inhabitants | 1927.5 | |
| Libraries/10,000 inhabitants | 3.2 | |
| Restaurants and bars/100,000 inhabitants | 685.5 | |
| Shows/10 km2 | 175.0 | |
| Book shops/100.000 inhabitants | 7.0 | |
| Gyms/100.000 inhabitants | 11.2 | |
| Per capita expenditure on shows | €9.8 | |
| Percentage of population subscriber of ultra-broadband | 3.4% | |
| Hotel beds/km2 | 9.7 | |