Luco dei Marsi 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:...

and town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 in the Province of L'Aquila

L'Aquila

L'Aquila is a city and comune in central Italy, both the capital city of the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 73,150 inhabitants, but has a daily presence in the territory of 100,000 people for study, tertiary activities, jobs and tourism...

 in the Abruzzo

Abruzzo

Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...

 region of Italy

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...

. It is part of the Marsica

Marsica

Marsica is a geographical area in the Abruzzo, central Italy, including 37 comuni in the province of L'Aquila, the most important of which is Avezzano. It is located between the plain of the former Lake Fucino, the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, the plain of Carsoli and the valley of...

.

The town was probably founded by the Roman Emperor Claudius

Claudius

Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...

 to house workers in the drying of the Lacus Fucinus (Lake Fucino). The name derives from a nearby wood, Lucus

Lucus

In ancient Roman religion, a lucus is a sacred grove.Lucus was one of four Latin words meaning in general "forest, woodland, grove" , but unlike the others it was primarily used as a religious designation...

 Angitiae, "Sacred Grove of Angitia

Angitia

Angitia was a goddess among the Marsi, the Paeligni and other Oscan-Umbrian populations of central Italy. She was associated in antiquity as snake-charmers who claimed her as their ancestor. Roman interpretations probably obscure her Marsian significance.Her myths vary...

," referring to a divine sorceress of the Marsi

Marsi

Marsi is the Latin exonym for a people of ancient Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus, drained for agricultural land in the late 19th century. The area in which they lived is now called Marsica. During the Roman Republic the people of the region spoke a...

 Italic tribe.

During the Middle Ages it was a fief of the d'Avalos and then of the Colonna family

Colonna family

The Colonna family is an Italian noble family; it was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one Pope and many other Church and political leaders...