Angevin synoecisms in the border region of the Kingdom of Sicily in the 13th and 14th centuries

After the conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily by Charles I of Anjou, the Angevin king and his successors ordered or authorized the construction or reconstruction of many towns in the northern border region of the Kingdom. The most ancient ones, right after the battle of Benevento, were L’Aquila and Montereale (ca. 1266-1271), followed by Leonessa (founded in 1278) and by the failed attempt of Valle Castellana (1281), while Cittaducale (1309-1311) and Cittareale (1329) were born by order of Charles II and Robert of Anjou. All these towns were located along important routes in the border region; they were also born through synoecisms, namely the merging into a single place of the inhabitants from scattered settlements in the area. More common features shared by these new cities were: the presence of a royal officer charged with supervising them during the edification phase; city walls to guard the new towns and a fortress or a tower to guarantee the king’s control over it; a road system characterized by orthogonal axes. While it is not possible to describe this cycle of foundations as a unitary project to strengthen the northern border of the Kingdom of Sicily, it still shows the concern of the Angevin kings for the region, and it underlines a method used to stabilize an area on which the kings’ control was weak and unstable, partially as a consequence of its being close to an uncertain boundary.