The Palazzo Comunale/enoteca Comunale

The Palazzo Comunale is located in today's Piazza Garibaldi and was built in the century. XV, when the municipalities began to claim margins of autonomy from the feudal power.

We know that as early as 22 August 1478 a "municipal house" existed in Controguerra, since on that date Fra Giovanni Vico, prior of the monastery of Santa Maria di Offida and apostolic delegate for the investigation of the legitimacy of the right of patronage, went there enjoyed by the Acquavivas on the secular and regular benefits existing in their domains. Precisely in the town hall of the town, Fra Giovanni Vico recognized the prerogatives of the Dukes of Acquaviva on the benefits of Controguerra, in the presence of Cola Andrea di Masio, the local annual judge, of the parish priest of the local monastery of San Benedetto ad Trivium (al Trivio) and of Signor Giacomo de Sanctis di Bellante.

In modern times the palace was the stable seat of city power and in the Bourbon era the Decurionate met here and the cash register and the municipal archive were kept there. The city guard was housed on the ground floor.

In the second half of the 19th century, in the right wing of the upper floor, where some rooms had been created for the municipal secretary, Giovanni Amadio was born, Gold Medal for Military Valor in the Great War, as recalled by a marble plaque affixed during the Fascist twenty years.

In the Fascist era there was also the headquarters of the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro, which was sacked in the days of the Liberation of Teramo (June 1944). Some rooms of the building, after the Second World War, were used as temporary accommodation.

In the second half of the twentieth century, when the town hall was moved to the premises of the school building, the post office was transferred to the first floor, which remained there for a few years before being moved to Piazza Mazzini. Also in those years, the local Carabinieri station was installed on the ground floor of the building and there was also a butcher's shop. The Carabinieri remained until the 1950s, then the barracks were moved to a small house in Piazza Mazzini. Now Controguerra no longer has a Carabinieri Station, but depends on that of Corropoli.

Today the complex is home to the Municipal Enoteca and the Circolo Giovani e Antiani di Controguerra.

As regards the strictly architectural profile, the Palazzo Comunale is a two-story building entirely in brick. The structure has undergone massive restorations over the centuries. The ground floor is the best preserved, with 16th-17th century vaults and exposed bricks. It is accessed from Piazza Garibaldi, but the surface of the floor is about one meter below ground level.

The upper floor, on the other hand, is accessed via an external staircase, rebuilt in the 1960s and enriched with the merlons that characterize the building today.