In the fifteenth century Giampaolo Cantelmo was appointed count of Ortona and Carrito dei Marsi. In the sixteenth century the bishop of Pescina elevated the church of San Giovanni Battista to a collegiate church. In the eighteenth century, serious natural disasters caused many inhabitants to move in the countryside around Rome. In 1915 the country has been seriously damaged by the earthquake of Avezzano. In the twentieth century the country was marked by the emigration. Many of its inhabitants moved to large Italian cities and to the United States of America.