Cavanaugh San Quentin

The way of wool: Taranta Peligna

Lace and embroidery, tapestries and carpets . The art of fabric Abruzzo in the ancient past to the industrious and skilful hands of women.

From Scanno to Pescocostanzo , move to Taranta Peligna , Castel di Sangro , Fara San Martino , Lancaster, Bucchianico , Sulmona, Castel del Monte , Pietracamela , Nereto , Pens , and be appreciated even beyond the regional borders.

The textile tradition of Abruzzo is fundamentally related to sheep than in the past, during the period of transhumance - that was the case when the seasonal migration of livestock from the pastures of the plains in mountain areas and vice versa - forcing men to stay for a long period away from home, and so the wives prepared everything necessary to their husbands, from clothes to blankets. It 's the case of the famous "Taranto", the heavy and colorful wool blankets with no "right" nor "wrong" hand-woven by artisans in Taranta Peligna, mountain village located a few kilometers from the cave Cavallone in Majella National Park . Tradition has it that the emergence of art wool in the middle ages, has led to the development of Taranta Peligna, located near the center tratturo Great, not far from Via della Lana linking through the central Apennines, the cities of Florence and Naples. This country since the eleventh century established itself as a thriving textile and trade.

fact, Taranta Peligna since the late Middle Ages there are records of the presence of wool, which in 60 years of the twentieth century came to occupy up to 150 people, using the strength of the Aventine to produce energy and carry the heavy Abruzzi fringed blankets fine handmade by another hundred or so women in their homes. Historically, In fact, the textile mill at the foot of the mountain villages of south-east Majella revolved around the figure dell'impreditore-merchant, who traded in the fairs of southern cloths and woolen yarn produced at a Palena, Lama of Peligni , Taranta Peligna, Fara San Martino and Torricella Peligna, entrusting the production of semi-finished home.
the remote origin of this art we also witness the cult of San Biagio, patron saint of wool workers because martyred with the apparatus for carding wool, which was dedicated to a late Romanesque church, whose ruins are preserved in oldest part of Taranta Peligna. A cult that has its roots centuries old and still alive. At the foot of the Majella, still the master craftsmen of wool are the main promoters of folk and religious festival in honor of the saint. Saint of the pastoral area, S. Biagio was born and lived in Armenia and it is no coincidence that the votive tablets of the February 3 (over the designs and symbols depicted on the blankets and tablecloths produced locally) find inspiration in ancient oriental civilization.

On the front of the church you read the signs of the country's history that recognizes nell'effige weaver spider, the tarantula . And this is the specific name of some special fabrics - Especially in rough black wool - made here since 500 and are renowned throughout the world. In addition to " tarante " or " tarantulas " along the banks of the Aventine and the green they made even the most precious "Ferrandina" wool and silk and other yarns for carpets, tapestries and blankets. There were in fact abundant raw materials: wool first, but also wood boilers to activate the dye, oil for precardatura wool, herbs, dye to color fabrics. Now the production, though reduced, is still active and allows you to buy at the store the only plant still open, the last pieces of the traditional indoor Abruzzo, decorated with traditional colors and designs inspired by Arabic or religious. Those with the angels in fact used to decorate the windows and balconies of Abruzzo to the passage of processions and so in tribute to the patron saint of the streets that crossed the country back to the faithful. Those with geometric or floral motifs reminiscent of cultural exchanges with the weavers of Pescocostanzo, where the Turkish exports in the seventeenth century the art of carpet Middle East. The woolen mills, today the smell of industrial archeology, stand outside the town of Taranta Peligna park near the river dannunziana memory, Living Waters, quench spring pools where the rich vegetation in a charming and calm. The pure water was also a key requirement in the process of coloring of wool, which was boiled in large cauldrons for a long time, along with the mordant (a substance that fixes the color) and dyeing plants, wild as the elm, the mignonette, the 'ash, or cultivated, such as madder (known for its red roots) and woad (blue pigments which are present in the leaves, were used to color the coats of the French Jacobins).