L'Aquila

The city was born of a revolt by the villages of the area against their feudal lords. In 1254 the emperor Conrad IV, son of Frederick II, allowed their people to build a new city called Aquila, "eagle", on a hill in the Aterno valley; tradition says 99 villages took part, each building its own quarter. Manfred razed it in 1259, but Charles I of Anjou had it rebuilt, and the walls were completed in 1316. On 29 August 1294 the hermit Pietro da Morrone was crowned Pope Celestine V at Collemaggio and decreed the annual pardon that became the Perdonanza.

Wool, saffron and trade made L'Aquila the second city of the Kingdom of Naples, linked by the "via degli Abruzzi" to Florence and Naples. It resisted a 13-month siege by the condottiero Braccio da Montone, who died of wounds after the battle below its walls in 1424; a printing press followed in 1481. In the 16th century the Spanish crushed the city's autonomy and built the fortress, and its prosperity never fully returned.

Earthquakes punctuate its story. The quake of 1349 killed about 800 people, and that of 1703 more than 3,000, when almost all the churches collapsed. Named Aquila degli Abruzzi in 1861, it became L'Aquila in 1939. On 6 April 2009 a magnitude 6.3 earthquake killed 308 people and left about 65,000 homeless, and that July the G8 summit was moved here in solidarity. Reconstruction has reopened San Bernardino in 2015 and Collemaggio in 2017, and in 2026 L'Aquila is Italian Capital of Culture.

The Perdonanza Celestiniana is the heart of the city's calendar: every year at the end of August, pilgrims come to Collemaggio to receive the pardon decreed by Celestine V, and the rite has been on UNESCO's intangible heritage list since 2019. The legend of the 99 founding villages runs through local identity, from the Fountain of the 99 Spouts to the tale of 99 churches and squares.

As a university city, L'Aquila has more cultural institutions than its size suggests: a repertory theatre, the Teatro Stabile d'Abruzzo, a symphony orchestra, a fine art academy, a state conservatory and a film institute founded in 1981. After 2009 Renzo Piano designed the wooden Auditorium del Parco as a symbol of rebirth, and the MAXXI opened a branch in Palazzo Ardinghelli. Films from The Name of the Rose to Ladyhawke were shot in and around the city.

Rugby has a long history here — L'Aquila Rugby won five Italian titles before the club disbanded in 2018 — and the surrounding mountains make skiing and hiking part of everyday life. The cemetery holds the grave of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the 19th-century German pioneer of gay rights, who lived here, and people gather there each year to honour him.

L'Aquila had 70,421 inhabitants in 2025, spread across a large municipality of many outlying villages, and at the end of 2023 about 9 per cent of residents were foreign nationals. It is the seat of the Abruzzo regional government and council, though Pescara, on the coast, is larger.

The university has more than 16,000 students, and the Gran Sasso Science Institute, founded in 2012, trains doctoral researchers. Beneath the mountain, the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso — the largest underground research centre in the world — host particle physics experiments.

Seventeen years after the earthquake, reconstruction still shapes the daily routine. The town hall worked from temporary premises until 2023, and the return of shops, offices and residents to the centre has been gradual. Students fill the bars of the reopened streets in the evening, while the old difficulties of a mountain city — long winters, a slow railway and weak public transport links — remain.

The city's cooking is mountain food rooted in Abruzzese tradition. Its own antipasto is intingolo all'aquilana, a mixture of ox marrow with Abruzzo saffron, eggs, cream and butter. Pasta comes in Abruzzese shapes — spaghetti alla chitarra, ravioli and fregnacce, irregularly cut sheets of pasta — served with tomato sauce and lamb or in vegetable or chicken broth. Anellini alla pecorara, small pasta rings with tomato, vegetables and sheep's-milk ricotta, is the classic first course of the area, and dishes of the poor kitchen include sagne with chickpeas or beans, and lentils with potatoes.

Saffron from the Navelli plain, on the edge of the L'Aquila basin, has been prized since the Middle Ages and carries a protected designation of origin. Across Abruzzo, arrosticini, small mutton skewers grilled over a long narrow brazier, are a shepherds' tradition.

The city is known for its torrone, above all torrone Nurzia, and for ferratelle, thin waffles pressed in metal moulds with a raised diamond pattern; both are recognised traditional products. Genziana, a bitter drink made from gentian root, and nocino, a walnut liqueur, are made locally.