Paesaggi Sonori — Gessopalena stop

Paesaggi Sonori in Gessopalena

Paesaggi Sonori is a music and landscape festival that hosts concerts within natural areas and sites rich in history and cultural heritage across Abruzzo. Among its recurring destinations is Gessopalena, a town in the Province of Chieti on the slopes of the Maiella, where the festival chooses one of its most evocative settings every year: the ancient village, an uninhabited medieval settlement carved into gypsum known as Pietralucente, which seems to light up with its own glow at sunset.

A concert reached on foot

The festival's formula is as simple as it is radical: no urban stages, but places earned by walking. The concerts are held at sunset and are accessible exclusively on foot or by sustainable means, ensuring arrival just as the music begins and the pale stone of the old village reflects the last rays of the setting sun. It is an intimate, twilight listening experience, immersed in one of the most distinctive landscapes of the Abruzzo hinterland.

The philosophy of the festival

Created by Abruzzo natives Massimo Stringini and Flavia Massimo, Paesaggi Sonori was born from the idea of enhancing the region's natural and cultural wonders through music, art, and the environment. Each edition touches different municipalities in Abruzzo—from the plateaus of L'Aquila to ancient ruins, medieval fortresses, and wild clearings—building a geography of slow and conscious listening. In Gessopalena, the festival finds a unique natural theater where the landscape of the abandoned village becomes an integral part of the concert.

Singer-songwriter music, international outlook

The programming favors research and singer-songwriter music, with a particular focus on female voices and international artists: over the years, names from Scotland, Korea, Norway, Switzerland, and Africa have performed alongside protagonists of the Italian scene. The Gessopalena stop is part of a summer schedule spread across several municipalities between the provinces of L'Aquila and Chieti.

A festival for the territory

More than just a series of events, Paesaggi Sonori is a community project involving local administrations, associations, and volunteers. For the Municipality of Gessopalena, the event represents an opportunity for visibility and the revitalization of the ancient village and its territory, in an area of Abruzzo that makes silence, landscape, and hiking its most authentic values.