Its ridge develops for 9 km, in a north-south course from the Coccia ford (1674 m), the pass that joins it to the Maiella massif, to the vicinity of the Fork Pass (1276 m), from which the Quarto Santa Chiara plateau opens. More precisely, its ridge includes, in its north-south development, in order, the following peaks: the summit of the La Paradina rock wall (1969 m), the north subpeak of Mount Porrara (1935 m), the Ogniquota summit (2100 m), Mount Pareti Rosse (2040 m), the summit of Mount Porrara (2137 m), the south subpeak of Mount Porrara (2092 m), and Mount Malvone (or Molione) (1729 m), coinciding with the plain and sierra of the same name. Part of its territory falls within the perimeter of the Quarto Santa Chiara Nature Reserve. Administratively, the two slopes of the mountain are included in the territory of the municipalities of Palena (eastern slope) and Campo di Giove (western slope), with its summit falling a few meters within the municipal territory of the latter, both of which are part of the Maiella National Park. On its eastern slopes rises the Aventino River (springs of Capo di Fiume, fed by waters flowing from the Quarto Santa Chiara plateau located to the west), in the municipal territory of Palena, which originates the valley of the same name that opens eastward to the Adriatic Sea, while on its western slopes the Cerreto plain separates it from Mount Pizzalto (1966 m). The rocks of the mountain are limestone.
The mountain was referred to as "Palleno" in Roman times, from which the name of the municipality of Palena derives, with the meaning of "meadow on a steep slope." The name in use, with the literal meaning of "leek mountain," refers instead to the herbaceous plant of the same name that grows there wild at the low altitudes of the eastern slope. Mount Porrara hosted at different times three saints who came there in prayer: saint Falco, a hermit in the 11th century in a cave located between the mountain and the remaining Maiella massif, Pope Celestine V, at the time Pietro Angelerio and also known as Pietro da Morrone, a hermit in the 13th century in the Taverna cave, and saint Nicola da Forca Palena in the 14th century. In particular, Pietro da Morrone, who came from Castel di Sangro, dug his own dwelling himself, where he lived between 1235 and 1238, when he headed to Rome to receive the priestly habit. During the latter century, the Congregation of the Celestines built there the Hermitage of Madonna dell'Altare on a rock, located in the vicinity of the cave where their founder lived, dwelling there until 1807. In 1943, at the height of World War II, the Germans, given the strategic location of Mount Porrara and its proximity to the Gustav Line, built trenches there, of which the ruins remain, and converted the religious building into a prison. Throughout its history and to some extent to this day its heights were used for cattle grazing.
Mountaineering routes
The mountaineering routes that traverse Mount Porrara consist of a number of trails that, in hiking circles, make it possible to reach its summit: the normal route traces an itinerary that crosses its crest after passing the wooded areas and the summit pastures and is a hybrid between the park path and the CAI's Grand Italian Trail and is taken along the provincial road 12 Frentana, in the vicinity of the station of Palena, while the direttissima route is formed by a pair of parallel paths, in places overlapping and connected, which originate from the Hermitage of Madonna dell'Altare, present on an altar-shaped rock that gives it its name, located along the eastern slopes of the mountain, and, after passing through wooded areas and shrubby pastures, climb up to the Pilate's Lodges, natural terraces formed by stone boulders that bear the name of the character who characterized that place.
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Ernesto Giammarco (1990). Toponomastica abruzzese e molisana. Vol. 6 del Dizionario abruzzese e molisano. Roma: Edizioni dell'Ateneo.
Antonio Grano (2001). Il Papa santo: Celestino V. San Pietro a Maiella: vita e miracoli dell'eremita abruzzese che a Napoli si dimise da pontefice ma non fece per viltade il gran rifiuto. prefazione di Mimmo Liguoro. Napoli: Tullio Pironti.
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