L'AQUILA
L’Aquila
is a City of Abruzzo as well as being the main Provincial
and Regional town. It was built up at the foot of the Gran
Sasso (Big Rock) at a height (714) which dominated the valley
of the Aterno.
The City, already conceived by Federico II of Svevia, was
constructed in 1254 on the remains of the previous Roman site
of Amiternum. Revived in 1266 as a free Council after its
destruction, can be attributed to King Manfredi (1259); containing
99 squares, 99 fountains and 99 “Castles,” each
one electing its own mayor. It has a Union of mayors who constituted
the “camera” citadina, (citizen room) with a camerlengo
(Treasurer of the Papal Court) at its head.
Thanks to the political and administrative autonomy, its economic
and territorial development was rapid. L’Aquila minted
its own currency, a true privilege of the medieval era, and
also gave impetus to some specific activities; that of the
silk, wool and lace industries, as well as the cultivation
of Saffron, which allowed it to assume a role, second to that
of Naples, as the most important centre of the Angioino reign.
On 2nd June 1424, the City victoriously resisted an attack
by Braccio da Montone, but was then overthrown by the militia
of Giovanna led by Giacomo Caldora; it supported the house
of d’Angio against Alfonso d’Aragona, and in the
second half of the 1400’s, reached the height of its
power.
The creation of a “Studio Generale” (an old university)
dates back to this period and the opening of one of the first
Italian printing houses, work of Adamo of Rottwill, who was
the direct disciple of Gutenberg. The City’s decline
began instead in the final years of the 15th Century and in
the first of the 16th, when L’Aquila found itself involved
in the war between France and Spain; asking support first
from Carlo VIII and then from the Emperor Carlo V. Occupied
in 1529 by Viceroy Filiberto of Chalon, Prince of Orange,
it was pillaged and partly destroyed, suffering also strong
territorial losses and heavy fiscal impositions by the Imperial
Governor. This led to the loss of its autonomy. It was then
also afflicted by a series of earthquakes and epidemics. It
was also the continuous scene of internal rebellions at the
end of the 18th Century, until Carlo II, of the Bourbons of
Spain, took up the throne and tried to resolve the economic-social
conditions. It was then in 1799 that L’Aquila was forced
to undergo a further pillage by the French, and later, during
the reign of Murat, it was robbed of a considerable number
of artistic treasures. In the Renaissance period, after the
Bourbon restoration, it was part of the revolts of 1821 and
1831, and that of 1848. It then declared its annexing with
the Italian reign on 8th September 1860, soon after the Garibaldine
troops entered Naples.
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