italia_infom: L'Aquila

L'Aquila

Many people, both here in Italy and in other countries, have only discovered L'Aquila's historical and artistic heritage since the earthquake on 6 April 2009. This city, rich in tradition and culture, was very badly damaged by the tremor, which reached 5.8 on the Richter Scale. Some 300 people died and over 1,500 were injured; ancient buildings, churches, medieval monuments and imposing palaces, such as the one housing the Prefect's Office, were reduced to shapeless heaps of rubble.

Bird's eye view of L'Aquila

The earthquake on 6 April 2009 is a fresh blemish on the tortured skin of the Abruzzo capital, which experienced two previous destructive earthquakes in 1703 and 1915. The earthquake also dealt a blow to the city's historical centre and to its lively cultural life with the Teatro Stabile, the Conversatorio and important musical associations, the university with its almost 30,000 students and several schools of excellence.
Over 70% of the city's architectural, historical and artistic heritage - both religious and civil - has been damaged, according to the findings of mixed teams of experts from the Cultural Assets Ministry, the academic world, the National Research Centre and the Firefighting Corps, while efforts are ongoing to make the damaged cultural assets safe. The work is being supported by a fully-fledged competition in solidarity, and not just in Italy either. Many foreign countries have made a generous contribution by offering to adopt some of the more important monuments and sites of special historic and cultural interest identified by the Cultural Assets Ministry. Also, the Italian Government's decision to shift the G8 to L'Aquila is another signal of goodwill designed to keep attention focused on the areas hit by the earthquake, in a drive to foster their speedy recovery.

The history of L'Aquila, built in the Aterno valley at the foot of the Gran Sasso mountain and situated on a strategic trade route known as the Via degli Abruzzi, is dual in nature. On the one hand, the city has been closed in on itself and proudly independent; while on the other, it has had an open approach with a strong community identity. L'Aquila was founded in the 13th century in accordance with a plan developed by Swabian Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and his son Conrad IV, who issued its founding diploma in 1254. But it was also a product of the wishes of the people in the villages roundabout, who were eager to protect themselves against the local barons. After the city was destroyed by Manfred in 1259, Charles of Anjou ordered its re-foundation in 1266. Royal Captain Lucchesino da Firenze began by building the new city walls with their fortified bastions, then he divided it into four quarters, or neighbourhoods, each with its own so-called "capoquarto" church, the main church in the quarter. A major role in L'Aquila's re-foundation was played by the 99 confederated castles in the basin of L'Aquila. Their residents settled in the city, each group helping to rebuild it with a surface area in proportion to the number of inhabitants, around a square with its fountain, its church and its lord's palace. Thus the new city became a single entity with its surrounding territory.
The constant recurrence of the number "99" in the city's history and, above all, in its architecture - the 99 spouts in the "Fontana della Rivera" fountain, or the 99 times the bell in the Civic Tower tolls (and not even the earthquake on 6 April has been able to stop that!) - has caused L'Aquila to be described over the centuries as "the city with 99 squares, 99 fountains and 99 churches".

The fountain of the 99 Spouts

L'Aquila was the first city to host the coronation of a pope outside the apostolic walls of Rome: hermit Pietro da Morrone was crowned pope with the name of Celestine V in the basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, erected for that specific purpose, in August 1294. To mark the occasion, the pope granted a plenary indulgence - in other words, absolution for all sins committed - to all those faithful who might pass through the basilica's Holy Door. The ritual of the "Celestine Pardon" has been repeated on 28 August every year since then.

The city's prosperity reached new heights in the 15th century, when its university was founded and when it began to mint its own coinage as a mark of its administrative independence. Shaken by a violent earthquake in February 1703, the city managed slowly to recover and to regain its supremacy over the surrounding area, finally becoming the regional capital in 1860.
Its enchanting mountain scenery led to its discovery by tourists and aspiring mountaineers alike in the 19th century. The first mountain shelter in the Appenine range, the Garibaldi, was built here in 1886, while a cable car line and a hotel were built at Campo Imperatore in 1934.

L'Aquila is surrounded by fully three national parks: the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, the Parco del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga e Parco della Majella, and the Parco Regionale Sirente-Velino. The city has a population of some 75,000 people, some of whom have been living in evacuee conditions since the 6 April earthquake; and with its 110 municipalities it is the second largest province in Italy.
The presence of the university, of the Abruzzo National Museum, of other important museums and of the nearby nuclear physics laboratory under the Gran Sasso, along with a rich calendar of events, have turned the city into a nerve-centre of cultural activity on a national scale. The Conservatorio, originally founded as the local branch of Rome's world-famous Santa Cecilia Academy, has been awarded fully independent status and has been named after composer and pianist Alfredo Casella.

The city of L'Aquila plans to rebuild its future, after the earthquake, on the resources of its university and of its centres of excellence. The Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research has approved a series of measures designed specifically to offer support to the area's schools and to the university in the resumption of their daily activities. Exams and university lectures are going briskly ahead as normal, in accordance with the various faculties' academic timetables, both in the temporary evacuee centres and in some of the neighbouring towns in the province.