In July 2011, just over two years after the earthquake that struck the Abruzzo town of L’Aquila, we visited the restoration work underway (see article). At the time, the city was partly off-limits, and the situation did not seem likely to improve quickly, especially as Berlusconi’s government, as the documentary Draquila so relentlessly demonstrated, was showing little eagerness to carry out the work (see article).
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- 1. Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, L’Aquila, August 2023
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
12 years later, we returned to the site and found that any fears we might have had did not materialise [1]. The town has nothing in common with the one we visited. Although here and there some buildings are still awaiting work, a large part of the old town centre has been remarkably restored (ill. 1). Life has returned and the streets are full of walkers, although according to the people we met, some of the houses in the town centre are still uninhabited: part of the population that was rehoused has not yet returned to live there. Nevertheless, many students and professionals have set up offices here, Airbnb business seems to be flourishing, and the town is very lively (ill. 2).
Everything is impeccably clean. You hardly see a single tag, as is unfortunately the case in many Italian (or French) towns, as if having lived through the worst and come back from it had made people understand the importance of living in a preserved environment.
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- 2. Corso Vittorio Emanuele, L’Aquila, August 2023
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
Rather than publish one long survey, we will devote several articles to what we were able to see on site. Both the many restorations that have saved a heritage that was sometimes thought to be lost, and what is underway. Thus, while many churches, as we shall see, have been restored, others are still awaiting work, such as the church of Santa Maria Paganica, today in exactly the same condition as it was twelve years ago (ill. 3 and 4). Fortunately, it seems that restoration work is now scheduled and could take place in the next few years.
We’ll be seeing Santa Maria del Suffragio again, as the work was carried out and partly financed by France, which - as we mentioned earlier - sent specialist restorers and a chief architect of historic monuments, Didier Repellin, who was able to rebuild Giuseppe Valadier’s fallen dome exactly as it was,
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- 3. Chiesa Santa Maria Paganica
L’Aquila, July 2011
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
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- 4. Chiesa Santa Maria Paganica
L’Aquila, August 2023
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
Similarly, the restoration of the Duomo, whose transept, apse and dome had largely collapsed, has finally begun and we will also be devoting an article to it. We will also be talking about the Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo, which was housed in the Spanish Fort, which was also hit by the earthquake. In 2015, the museum found temporary shelter on the outskirts of the city and will return to the fort once the work being carried out there is complete. We were able to see some of its collections both in Celano and in the conservation and restoration centre that had been set up, which we wrote about in this article.
We were also lucky enough to visit a private palace, owned by a bank, which is currently undergoing a major restoration: it will become part of a museum displaying works of art belonging to the company.
We’ll also see some beautifully crafted 16th-century frescoes, discovered after the earthquake behind a Baroque structure, and the interesting questions this raises about how to present them without distorting the later décor.
Above all, it will hopefully be an opportunity to show just how much L’Aquila, so little known to the general public, undoubtedly deserves a visit that can last two days because there is so much to see, and will be even more so in the years to come once the restorations are complete. Although it’s impossible to get there by train, the city is only 120 km from Rome, and it’s easy to get there by motorway, or even by bus, which takes just an hour and twenty minutes.