Local legend says that the town arose from a small group of houses constructed around a theater ( circo ) set up by the Romans to celebrate the inauguration of Emperor Claudius , who drained the ancient Fucine lake . The Church of S. Bartolomeo is mentioned in a papal bull of 1300 . During the medieval period the village was held by the Colonna and Piccolomini families of Rome , who granted it to Camilla Peretti in 1591 , along with the County of Celano and the Barony of Pescina . Over the centuries the Fucino plain was resubmerged , until it was drained in the mid-nineteenth century by Alessandro Torlonia , 2nd Prince di Civitella-Cesi . Families from Cerchio then farmed the rich soils of the lake bed , working as tenant farmers , sharecroppers and day-laborers under the Torlonia Administration . The town was badly damaged by the earthquake of 1915
the earthquake of 1915
1915 Avezzano earthquake
Cerchio