Cittareale is a comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

(municipality) in the Province of Rieti

Province of Rieti

The Province of Rieti is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Rieti.It has an area of 2,749 km², and a total population of 153,258 . There are 73 comuni in the province, see Comuni of the Province of Rieti.It was founded in 1927.-External links:*...

 in the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 region Latium

Latium

Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...

. It is located about 100 km northeast of Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 and 35 km northeast of Rieti

Rieti

Rieti is a city and comune in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of c. 47,700. It is the capital of province of Rieti.The town centre rests on a small hilltop, commanding a wide plain at the southern edge of an ancient lake. The area is now the fertile basin of the Velino River...

.

Cittareale borders the following municipalities: Accumoli

Accumoli

Accumoli is a comune in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region Latium, located about 110 km northeast of Rome and about 45 km northeast of Rieti...

, Amatrice

Amatrice

Amatrice is a town and comune in the province of Rieti, in northern Lazio . The city is seat of the food-agricultural base of "Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park".-History:...

, Borbona

Borbona

Borbona is a comune in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region Latium, located about 90 km northeast of Rome and about 25 km northeast of Rieti....

, Cascia

Cascia

Cascia is a town and comune of the Italian province of Perugia in a rather remote area of the mountainous southeastern corner of Umbria. It is about 21 km from Norcia on the road to Rieti in the Lazio .-History:...

, Leonessa

Leonessa

Leonessa is a town and comune in the far northeastern part of the Province of Rieti in the Lazio region of central Italy. Its population in 2008 was around 2,700.Situated in a small plain at the foot of Mt...

, Montereale

Montereale (AQ)

Montereale is a comune and town in the province of L'Aquila, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is located in the natural park known as the "Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park".-See also:*1703 Apennine earthquakes...

, Norcia

Norcia

Norcia is a town and comune in the province of Perugia in southeastern Umbria, located in a wide plain abutting the Monti Sibillini, a subrange of the Apennines with some of its highest peaks, near the Sordo River, a small stream that eventually flows into the Nera...

, Posta

Posta (RI)

Posta is a comune in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region Latium, located about 80 km northeast of Rome and about 25 km northeast of Rieti...

. The source of the Velino river are in the communal territory.

Cittareal is home to a large Rocca

Rocca (architecture)

Rocca is an Italian term meaning a high, fortifiable stronghold, usually located in smaller towns, beneath or on which the village or town clustered, within which its inhabitants might take refuge at times of trouble; under its owners' patronage the settlement might hope to find prosperity in...

 (castle), which had a strategical importance due to its position between the Kingdom of Naples

Kingdom of Naples

The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...

 and the Papal States

Papal States

The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...

. Its current appearance date to the reconstruction by the Aragonese

House of Aragon

The House of Aragon is the name given several royal houses that ruled the County, the Kingdom or the Crown of Aragon.Some historiansGuillermo Fatás y Guillermo Redondo, Alberto Montaner Frutos, Faustino Menéndez Pidal de Navascués...

 in 1479. The church of St. Peter in Vetozza was built over a pre-existing temple dedicated to Vacuna

Vacuna

Vacuna was an ancient Sabine goddess, identified by ancient Roman sources and later scholars with numerous other goddesses, including Ceres, Diana, Nike, Minerva, Bellona, Venus and Victoria. She was mainly worshipped at a sanctuary in near Horace's villa , in sacred woods at Reate, and at...

, and later was owned by the Abbey of Farfa

Abbey of Farfa

Farfa Abbey is a territorial abbey in northern Lazio, central Italy. It is one of the most famous abbeys of Europe. It belongs to the Benedictine Order and is located about 60 km from Rome, in the commune of Fara Sabina, not far from the Fara Sabina railway station.-History:A legend in the...

.

The Roman emperor Vespasian

Vespasian

Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...

was born nearby.