L'Aquila Attractions

Santa Maria di Collemaggio

Santa Maria di Collemaggio. With its magnificent pink-and-white stone façade, its 14th-century frescoes, its Holy Door (the only one in Christendom outside of Rome), and its majestic pure Gothic interior, it would be a masterpiece of Abruzzo-style romanesque even without the unique story of its creation. Santa Maria di Collemaggio owes its life to Pietro Angeleri [1215-1296], a pious monk who was a hermit for 3 years on Mount Maiella. In 1294, after he wrote a letter of protest to the college of cardinals in Rome, he was unexpectedly elected pope, taking the name of Celestine V. 100,000 people, including Dante Alighieri, attended his incoronation in L'Aquila.

St Maria Scalena

Three side steps let you enter St Maria Scalena Hermitage. Above it a cave overlooks the Salinello Valley. If you look at Mount Campli, just opposite you, you can see St Marco Hermitage. Inside a small reservoir, used to collect water, you can read "St Maria" and you can see a rough fresco of a crying Madonna with the Holy Child. The most interesting piece is a rough stone altar with a fresco on the wall defaced by vandalism.Ripe, 980 mt. art section (paintings and sculptures from the12th century onwards); one devoted to coins and another devoted to contemporary art (works by R. Guttuso, V. Guidi, O. Tamburi and R. Brindisi). Of special note: an important groups of 13th- and 14th-century wooden sculptures and polychrome terra-cottas and some 14th- to 17th-century Flemish paintings.

St Michele Cave

The cave's entrance is under a wooden cross. It is one of the most interesting cult place in the area. A peculiar smooth column, which does not stand in the middle of its rectangular plinth, is founded on a cobblestone floor. On a squared slab, lying on the column, you can read the epigraph "Domizia Domiziano's wife". You can see a well carved altar too.

Stiffe's Caves

Stiffe's Caves are located on the top of the ravine overhanging the small village of Stiffe, San Demetrio nei Vestini's hamlet.Approaching the Caves you can admire some of the most beautiful scenery in Abruzzo: your sight can wander from the quiet and soft L'Aquila valley, dominated by the impressive Gran Sasso's mountain range, to the rocky face, 100 metres high, overhanging the Caves' entrance. Then it can get lost in the ravine's luxuriant vegetation, where there are so many paths you can follow. When you enter the Caves, your senses suddenly perceive its unusual atmosphere: the fresh humid air and the play of light might make your mind think about far-off times; the drops falling on your body make you experience how stalactites and stalagmites were created; your gaze concentrates on the water foaming under the footbridge and then it gets lost far away, trying to catch every detail of the rock formations. The stream is your noisy guide from the Caves' entrance, hiding itself for a bit so that you can appreciate the silence and then showing itself again with all its power, so strong during the winter season, in a great chamber where it falls in a roaring cascade with a magnificient and disquieting view. Bominaco, 900 mt.

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