EXPLORING OUR ROOTS
MEMBERS CONNECT TO FAMILY HISTORY IN ITALY
Stamping Around Abruzzo and Molise
By Joseph Scafetta Jr., AMHS Member
After reading the article “Stamping Around Italy — City of Vasto Municipals” in the May/June 2019 issue of the Notiziario, I was inspired by my fellow stamp-collecting Vastese, Louis Alfano, to write this article. My father, Giuseppe Scafetta (1896-1975) was a teen-aged stamp collector living in Vasto when the first city municipal stamps were issued about 1910.
He did not own any of them and never mentioned them to me before he gave me his collection when I was a young adult. Perhaps he was just not aware of their existence. By the time that the second set of city municipal stamps were issued in 1930, he was already in the United States, having immigrated to Washington, D.C., in early 1915 before Italy entered into World War I in May of that year. Italy issued a series of 51 colorful stamps depicting castles in four sets between 1980 and 1994. Seven of the 51 stamps illustrated castles in Abruzzo and Molise, making our regions very well represented.
The first set was issued on September 22, 1980, and comprised 27 stamps. Six of the seven stamps accompanying this article are mint, i.e. never used. The last stamp is canceled. The stamp images are enlarged so that you may be able to read the lettering on each stamp. The numbers above the first row and the numbers below the second row of scanned stamps were assigned by the Scott Publishing Company in its Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue and are used by collectors to identify each image.
The numbers assigned by Scott start in 1862 when the Kingdom of Italy began issuing postage stamps. In the first set, the Rocca Calascio in the province of L’Aquila in the region of Abruzzo is shown on a 50-lire stamp (Scott #1412) and the Cerro al Volturno in the province of Isernia in the region of Molise is shown on a 200-lire stamp (Scott #1420). I obtained these two stamps during my second visit to Vasto in 1986 from my first cousin, Antonio Scafetta, who was the city postmaster at that time. As you see, these two stamps are perforated on all four sides. My cousin carefully tore them from sheets of 40. He put money in the post office till whenever he gave a stamp to me.
Italy issued a series of 51 colorful stamps depicting castles in four sets between 1980 and 1994. Seven of the 51 stamps illustrated castles in Abruzzo and Molise, making our regions very well represented.
Rocca Calascio (Scott #1412) is a mountaintop fortress. At an elevation of 4,790 feet, it is the highest fortress in the Apennines. It was built of stone and masonry exclusively for military purposes, not the nobility. The fortress overlooks the Plain of Navelli at one of the highest points in the medieval Barony of Carapelle. Construction started in the 10th century as a single watch tower. A walled court yard with four cylindrical towers at the corners around a taller inner tower was added in the 13th century.
The lower half of the fortress was built with distinctively larger stones than its upper half. This feature was made so that its base would be impenetrable to invaders tunneling underneath. However, the fortress was never tested in battle. Nevertheless, it was badly damaged in November 1461 by a severe earthquake. While the town of Calascio below the fortress was rebuilt, the fortress itself was not. Rocca Calascio lies within the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park alongside the high plain of Campo Imperatore. Cerro al Volturno is a municipality located about 28 miles west of Campobasso and about 6 miles northwest of the provincial capital city of Isernia.
The town was founded by the Samnites during the 3rd century B.C.E. It was built about 1000 A.D. on a spur commanding a magnificent view of the nearby valley. The castle (Scott #1420) is one of two now called Pandone after Count Enrico Pandone who later owned it. In the second set of ten stamps, the Spanish fort in the city of L’Aquila is shown on a 30- lire stamp (Scott #1475) issued on August 20, 1981. The castle of Caldoresco in the city of Vasto in the province of Chieti in the region of Abruzzo is shown on a 1400-lire stamp (Scott #1479) issued on February 14, 1984. The 1400-lire stamp was the highest denomination issued in the 51-stamp series.
The castle in Venafro in the province of Isernia in the region of Molise is shown on a smaller 400-lire coil stamp (Scott #1483) issued on June 25, 1983. I obtained these three stamps also during my 1986 visit to Vasto from my postmaster cousin. The L’Aquila stamp was torn from a sheet of 40. Because we are Vastese, my cousin gave me an entire sheet of 40 Vasto stamps! The Venafro stamp was torn from the end of a horizontal coil of 100. Coil stamps have either horizontal straight edges and vertical perforations or vertical straight edges and horizontal perforations.
The Spanish fort, locally known as Forte Spagnolo or just Il Castello (Scott #1475), is a Renaissance castle. In the 15th century, L’Aquila had become the second most powerful city in the Kingdom of Naples after the capital of Naples itself. Wool and saffron were exported throughout Europe. All of this was lost when the Aquilans, during the war between the French and the Spaniards for the throne of Naples, sided with the French. In 1528, L’Aquila was occupied by the Spaniards. The viceroy ruling for King Carlos V of Spain ordered the city to build a fortress in the highest spot north of the city.
In the following 40 years, the heavy taxes necessary to build the fortress impoverished the city. In 1567, the city implored the Spaniards to stop the construction and the succeeding King Felipe II did so. Because the work was interrupted, parts of the castle were never completed. The fortress was not built to defend the city but rather to control it. Its cannons were pointed towards the city, not away from it. Fortunately, it was never used in battle. Il Castello Caldoresco (Scott #1479) is also a Renaissance castle. It is privately owned and not open to the public.
It was built in the early 15th century by the then lord of the city of Vasto, Jacopo Caldora, starting from a pre-existing large tower which dated to the 14th century. It was later modified and restored. The castle is located on a coastal promontory overlooking the Adriatic Sea. It includes four corner buildings connected by walls with a square court yard inside. Three of the four corners feature a cylindrical tower.
hese seven stamps depicting castles in Abruzzo and Molise were among 51 issued by Italy. The identifying numbers are referenced in the body of the article.
Jacopo Caldora, starting from a pre-existing large tower which dated to the 14th century. It was later modified and restored. The castle is located on a coastal promontory overlooking the Adriatic Sea. It includes four corner buildings connected by walls with a square court yard inside. Three of the four corners feature a cylindrical tower. Venafro is a municipality in the province of Isernia in the region of Molise. The historic center was built on existing Roman urban structures and many buildings still have Roman foundations.
Built in the highest part of the town, a castle (Scott #1483), the second of two now called Pandone, was constructed by the Lombards on an older fortification in the 10th century. In the 14th century, it was expanded with the addition of three circular towers. A moat was added around the castle in the 15th century. Interior wall frescoes commissioned by Count Enrico Pandone, for whom the castle is now named, were added during the Renaissance. Currently, the castle serves as the National Museum of Molise.
Because the Venafro coil stamp had become so popular, it was re-issued in a different color and in a higher denomination of 750 lire on March 1, 1988, in the third set of nine castle stamps. It was assigned #1665 by Scott. I got this sixth castle stamp from my postmaster cousin when I visited Vasto for the third time in 1991. Likewise, the castle of Cerro al Volturno was so popular that it too was re-issued on February 24, 1994, with the fourth and last set of five castle stamps. It was assigned #1862 by Scott. When you compare it to the earlier issued Scott #1420, it looks identical, but it is not. Although the colors are the same and the denomination of 200 lire is the same, the difference lies in the manner in which the image was made.
The earlier Scott #1420 was lithographed, then hand engraved, while the later #1862 was photoengraved to produce a sharper image. This difference is only evident by examining the two stamps side by side with a magnifying glass. The difference is not obvious to the naked eye. Why, you may ask, is this last stamp canceled when the first six are mint and never canceled? The reason is that my postmaster cousin, since he had retired by the time that the last stamp was issued, just placed it on an envelope and mailed it to me. I did not want to write back to him in Italian and tell him: “Hey! Send me this last stamp mint inside the envelope, not on the outside!” I never have been able in the past 25 years to find this last stamp on sale by any dealer in Italian stamps, but I keep looking for it every time when I go to a stamp show, which are usually held in this area about every three months. If you find it, let me know. I will pay you 30 cents which is its Scott catalogue value in mint condition!
Sources:
Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, volume 3, Italy, at pages 1355, 1356, 1360 & 1365, Scott Publishing Co., 2014.
En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocca_Colascio.
En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_al_Volturno.
En.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Forte_Spagnolo,_L’Aquila.