Back to L’Aquila (2). The church of Santa Maria del Suffragio

As was the case on a much larger scale in Sicily after the devastating earthquake of 1693, the 1703 seism in L’Aquila in Abruzzo was also the occasion for the construction of religious buildings in the Baroque style. Thus, Santa Maria del Suffragio was built by the brotherhood of the Souls of Purgatory (Anime del Purgatorio) to replace their destroyed church, moving it close to the duomo despite opposition from the archbishop, who did not want a place of worship so close to the cathedral for fear that it would compete with it.
In 2009, the city was once again hit by a violent earthquake that saw the monument’s dome collapse (ill. 1).

1. View of the interior of Santa Maria del Suffragio after the 2009 earthquake
Photo: G. Lattanzi

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The monument was built over a long period from 1713 to the early 19th century. The plans were drawn up by the architect Carlo Buratti, a pupil of Carlo Fontana in Rome, based on a model inspired by the Gesù, with a single nave. Buratti, however, did not supervise the work, but only provided the drawings and a scale model [1]. The church was built in four years, but without the façade or dome. The first one, by Giovan Francesco Leomporri, an architect of Lombard origin who trained in Rome and was very active in L’Aquila, only dates from the early 1770s. Its curves are Borrominian in spirit, and its closest model is that of the church of Santa Maddalena by Emanuel Rodriguez Dos Santos, a Portuguese architect active in Rome. Originally planned by Buratti, the dome was not finally built until 1803, in neoclassical style, by Giuseppe Valadier.

2. View of the interior of Santa Maria del Suffragio two years after the 2009 earthquake
Photo: Didier Rykner

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We visited L’Aquila in 2011 (ill. 2), and in particular entered this church (see article), which at the time benefited from French aid. France had covered half of the restoration budget, and had sent…