Abruzzo's hilltop capital — Warrior of Capestrano, Roman temples, and Adriatic panoramas
Chieti is a hilltop city in Abruzzo, perched above the Pescara River valley with views from its heights stretching across to the Adriatic Sea and, on clear days, back to the Gran Sasso massif. The city is the capital of Abruzzo's most ancient culture — the Vestini and Marrucini Italic tribes who resisted Rome longer than most — and its National Museum of Archaeology holds the Warrior of Capestrano, a 6th-century BCE Italic warrior statue that has become the icon of pre-Roman Italian culture. Three surviving Roman temples are embedded in the modern city centre.
Chieti is ancient Teate Marrucinorum, capital of the Marrucini tribe — one of the Italic peoples who fought Rome in the Social War (91–87 BCE) for Roman citizenship. After the Social War it became a Roman municipium and later a prosperous provincial capital. The city gives its name to the Theatine order of priests, founded here in 1524 by St Gaetano da Thiene and Gian Pietro Carafa (later Pope Paul IV). Despite its ancient origins, Chieti remained relatively obscure through the medieval period, overshadowed by nearby Pescara and L'Aquila.