LANCIANO (anc. Anxanum)  , a town and episcopal see of the Abruzzi, Italy, in the province of Chieti, situated on three hills, 984 ft. above sea-level, about 8 m. from the Adriatic coast and 12 m . S.E. of Chieti . Pop . (1901) 7642 (town), 18,316 (commune) . It has a railway station on the coast railway, 19 M . S.E. of Castellammare Adriatico . It has broad, regular streets, and several fine buildings . The cathedral, an imposing structure with a fine clock-tower of 1619, is built upon bridges of brickwork, dating perhaps from the Roman period (though the inscription attributing the work to Diocletian is a forgery), that span the gorge of the Feltrino, and is dedicated to S . Maria del Ponte, Our Lady of the Bridge . The Gothic church of S . Maria Maggiore dates from 1227 and has a fine facade, with a portal of 1317 by a local sculptor . The processional cross by the silversmith Nicola di Guardiagrele (1422) is very beautiful .

In S . Nicola is a fine reliquary of 1445 by Nicola di Francavilla . The church of the Annunziata has a

good rose window of 1362 . The industries of the town, famous in the middle ages, have declined . Anxanum belonged originally to the tribe of the Frentani and later became a municipium . It lay on the ancient highroad, which abandoned the coast at Ortona ro m. to the N. and returned to it at Histonium (Vasto) . Remains of a Roman theatre exist under the bishop's palace . See V . Bindi, Monumentidegli Abruzzi (Naples, 1889, 690 sqq.), and for discoveries in the neighbourhood see A. de Nino in Notizie degli scavi (1884), 431 . (T .