Population
10 towns where the population fits in one church
Comuni under 300 residents, few enough to seat at a single festa mass. 10 towns shown, smallest first.
Table no. 18 · Ranked by residents · 10 towns
Italian parish churches were built for congregations that no longer exist. In these comuni, under three hundred residents each, the whole town seats comfortably at a single festa mass, with pews to spare.
The churches are usually the best thing standing, kept by the same few hands that keep everything else. If the door is locked, ask at the bar; the key is never far.
- 1.Montelapiano75 residentsChieti · AbruzzoAt 740 meters on a limestone marl ridge in the middle Sangro valley, the smallest non-Alpine comune in Italy, population 67.
- 2.Ostana85 residentsCuneo · Piedmont
- 3.Monteferrante106 residentsChieti · Abruzzo
- 4.Bard108 residentsAosta Valley · Aosta Valley
- 5.Santo Stefano di Sessanio114 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoA Medici outpost at 1,250 meters, restored building by building since 1999 into Italy's first scattered hotel.
- 6.Castelvecchio Calvisio118 residentsL'Aquila · Abruzzo
- 7.Calascio125 residentsL'Aquila · Abruzzo
- 8.Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena130 residentsSavona · Liguria
- 9.Celle di San Vito148 residentsFoggia · Apulia
- 10.Usseaux175 residentsTorino · PiedmontA Val Chisone village at 1,416 meters with four scattered borgate and more than forty murals painted across the stone facades.
FIVE OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN ABRUZZO
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