page_title: Province of Chieti
section_title: Vasto
hierarchical_section_title: Province of Chieti / Main sights / Vasto
caption_attribution_description: English: Steeple of the Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore, Vasto, Italy
context_page_description: The province of Chieti is a province in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Its provincial capital is the city Chieti, which has a population of 50,770 inhabitants. The province has a total population of 387,649 inhabitants as of 2017 and spans an area of 2,599.58 square kilometres. It is divided into 104 comuni and the provincial president is Mario Pupillo.
  Chieti's cathedral was first constructed during the 9th century but was reconstructed during the 13th century. The province contains the Museo Nazionale di Antichità, which contains items from the area prior to Roman rule.
context_section_description: The old part of the town (centro storico) features a number of interesting buildings and churches dating from the 12th to the 18th century, including:
  Cathedral of San Giuseppe
  Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, the largest and oldest (mentioned in a document as early as 1195) church in the town, with a quite tall bell tower. Damaged by the Turks in 1566, and by a fire in 1645, it went a thorough restructuring in 1735 in which it got the current shape. It hosts one of alleged Jesus' crown of thorns (Sacra Spina).
  Castello Caldoresco
  D'Avalos Palace (Palazzo D'Avalos) and the Musei Civici
  Below the hill on which the town is located, the beach resort town of Marina di Vasto offers a large sandy beach and several hotels and other facilities. 
  Further north the coast becomes rocky and features interesting pebble and stone beaches and coves, as well as the typical trabocchi, that are typical wooden fishing machines of the Southern Abruzzo coast. 
  
  Amongst the most interesting natural areas, also featuring a number of sandy and rocky beaches, is the protected natural area of the Riserva Naturale di Punta Aderci, whose beaches were voted in 2014 3rd of the top 20 beaches in Italy.
caption: Santa Maria Maggiore church bell tower
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