SULMONA, or Solmona, a city of Italy, in the province of Aquila (Abruzzo Ulteriore), now reached by a branch line from the railway between Pescara and Aquila, lies, at a height of 1575 feet above the sea, at the junction of the Vella with the Gizio (a tributary of the Pescara), which supplies water-power to its paper-mills, fulling-mills, copper-works, &c. Besides its cathedral (S. Panfilo), rebuilt by Bishop Walther of Ocre (Frederick II.’s grand chancellor) in 1119, and several times remodelled in the 15th and 16th centuries, Sulmona has in Santa Maria della Tomba a good example of pure Gothic, and in Corpus Domini a striking instance of the vagaries of Gothic in its decay. The communal buildings are half Gothic, half Renaissance. A statue of Ovid, the most celebrated native of the city (which also gave birth to Innocent VII.), stands in front of the cancellaria. In the vicinity of the town is Monte Morrone, where Celestine V. lived as a hermit and founded a monastery of “Celestines,” which remained till 1870, when it was transformed into a penitentiary. The population of Sulmona was 12,594 in 1861 and 14,171 in 1881 (commune, 17,601).

Sulmo, a city of the Peligni, is first mentioned during the Second Punic War (211 b.c. ). It became a Roman colony probably in the reign of Augustus, and as a municipium it continued to flourish throughout the empire. Charles V. erected it into a principality, which he bestowed on Charles Lannoy of “Pavia” celebrity. It ultimately passed to the Corno and Borghese families. The bishopric is known as that of Valva and Sulmona.