Its urban configuration was established in the Middle Ages when the phenomenon of fortification developed, with the high-altitude settlements surrounded by a fortified wall perimeter. The Medici Tower, which was its symbol, no longer exists today because it collapsed during the earthquake that shook L'Aquila in 2009, which is about forty minutes from here.
If today Santo Stefano di Sessanio is known all over the world, praised and recommended by the New York Times, the Guardian and the Times ("one of the 12 most beautiful hotels in the world"), it is due to the entrepreneur and philosopher Daniele Kihlgren who, thirty years, ago brought it back to light. “When I got there with my motorbike, it was semi-abandoned,” he states in “The torments of young Kihlgren” a text that has now become a book (Baldini+ Castoldi). “There were no signs of the twentieth century. I went to my accountant and explained to him the potential of this village, paradoxically saved from abandonment and from the dramatic destinies of emigration that have bled southern Italy to death. I explained to him that I imagined a possible re-destination for these intense and desolate lands.”
And so it was. He went to work. The research and studies were deepened and long lasting. With the help of an anthropologist (Nunzia Taraschi), he was responsible for ensuring respect for the local identity. Through the research started with the Museum of the People of Abruzzo in Pescara, he was able to preserve, rediscover, and above all, recover the minor historical heritage of the area and, therefore, the soul of what would become the Sextantio. “For some time, I had imagined recovering a minor architecture village, built without concrete,” adds Kihlgren. “The idea was a place to live like 70 years ago, with the furniture of the time, even if uncomfortable, the fabrics made on a loom as it once was.”