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Stemma di Controguerra

Abruzzo · Teramo

Controguerra

A 267-meter hill village whose name is legal shorthand for a small Montepulciano and Trebbiano-Passerina DOC.

Known for

  • CONTROGUERRA DOC

    DOC since 1996, Montepulciano-based reds and Trebbiano-Passerina whites across forty hectares in five Val Vibrata communes.

  • OLIVE OIL

    Extra-virgin oil from slopes alongside the DOC vineyards, on the Città dell'Olio route through the Teramo valleys.

  • CITTASLOW

    Member of the Cittaslow network for slow-food and slow-life governance, the only Cittaslow in the upper Val Vibrata.

  • PRETUZIANO DELLE COLLINE TERAMANE

    The commune lies inside the Pretuziano delle Colline Teramane DOP production zone.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

  • J
  • F
  • M
  • A
  • M
  • J
  • J
  • A
  • S
  • O
  • N
  • D
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Why come

The village sits fifteen kilometers from the Adriatic, at the northern edge of Abruzzo, where the valley bends toward the river and the sea. The wine zone that carries the town's name reaches beyond it, spread across five communes sharing the same elbow of land between river and coast. The reds run at least sixty percent Montepulciano, with Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon allowed up to fifteen percent; the whites are sixty percent Trebbiano with at least fifteen percent Passerina; the spumante sets Trebbiano against Chardonnay, Verdicchio and Pecorino.

The old center holds to its ridge above the valley while the vines and olive groves that support both the wine and oil designations spread on the slopes below, the same ground doing double duty. The place works because the name on the bottle and the name on the map are the same thing, a small hilltop settlement whose slow-food charter governs an area small enough that vineyard and piazza are never far apart.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Controguerra’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

Controguerra — photo 1
Controguerra — photo 2

What to see

  • Centro storico

    Small hilltop medieval centre on a ridge above the valley, with brick palazzi and the parish church on the central piazza.

  • Chiesa di San Salvatore

    Parish church on the main piazza, the religious anchor of the medieval ridge village, with a rebuilt eighteenth-century interior.

  • Cantine del Controguerra DOC

    Family cellars open by appointment, pouring Montepulciano-based reds, Trebbiano-Passerina whites and Pecorino spumante from the same slopes the town gives its name to.

  • Val Vibrata vineyards

    Vineyards and olive groves side by side on slopes between 200 and 400 meters, the shared ground behind the Città del Vino and Città dell'Olio designations.

The slow-trip planner

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Plan your trip

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

Living here

  • Population 2,192
  • Commuter belti
  • Pharmacy in town
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Train station in the comune
  • Nearest airport Ancona / Pescara, 1 h 24 min drive
  • Regional capital L'Aquila, 1 h 15 min drive
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 267 m
  • Population: 2,192
  • Surface area: 22.82 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

Close by

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