History
A hotel midway on the top of Campo Imperatore is where the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was imprisoned from August until September 1943 when he was freed by a Nazi commando operation. The plateau is also the site of the Campo Imperatore station of the Rome Observatory, from which the Campo Imperatore Near-Earth Objects Survey and other astronomical studies are carried out. At the southern edge of Campo Imperatore and within the bounds of the national park are three medieval hill towns once ruled by the Medicis: Calascio, which sits before the ancient fortress ruin of Rocca di Calascio, and Santo Stefano di Sessanio and Castel Del Monte.
The name Gran Sasso means "Great Stone".
In 2005, a 2424 m (7953 ft) peak previously named "The Gendarme" was renamed "John Paul II Peak" on what would have been Pope John Paul II's 85th birthday. He had visited the Gran Sasso many times, saying it reminded him of the mountains of his native Poland.
Read more about this topic: Gran Sasso D'Italia
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)