Against the city skyline in L'Aquila stands out the dome of St Bernardine's, the largest Renaissance church in Abruzzi. The church rises on a double flight of stairs, the former of 15 steps and the latter, on the other side of the street, long and wide, leading to Via Fortebraccio and out of the city. The church was built after the death of Bernardine from Siena (1380-1444), a Franciscan and one of the most effective and widely known preachers of his day, who lived in L'Aquila for some time and there he founded the congregation later called St. Bernardine's Friars.To stop the feuds between the families of the city, he promoted the devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus and created the monogram with the letters JHS, which can still be seen on many doorways of the town (in the picture, the monogram in the ceiling). The Basilica was begun in 1454, a few years after the Saint's death by his Aquilan disciples John from Capestrano and James della Marca, and went on for about twenty years. The façade was designed by Cola dell'Amatrice and consists of three orders in the different classical styles: doric, ionic and corynthian to express the 16th century ideal of a perfect fusion of Greek and Latin forms with the Christian heritage. At the same time, with its portals and rosewindows the church summarizes the whole heritage of Aquilan religious architecture. The three orders are separated by horizontal frames and by four couples of columns outlining nine fields: the bottom ones with three portals, the central fields with two rosewindows and a triple central window, and the top ones with JHS monograms and a rosewindow. The Baroque interior is 96m long and was completely rebuilt after the 1703 earthquake; it is divided into three aisles that join into the vast poligonal ambient under the dome. The ceiling in wood and sequin gold is the work of Fernando Mosca, a great artist from Pescocostanzo, who also made the big organ. In the ceiling s large St. Bernardine's monogram and paintings by Neapolitan Girolamo Cenatempo (XVIII century). In a chapel in the right aisle there is St. Bernardine's mausoleum, the most relevant Renaissance sculpture in Abruzzi, whose construction was entrusted to Silvestro dell'Aquila, a pupil of Donatello's, who worked on it until his death in 1504; Silvestro made the project and the main figures, while other artists, Angiolo from Arischia and Salvato Romano, completed the decorations. Inside the mausoleum the saint's body is preserved, within a silver and crystal urn, which is opened on 20th may each ear to place cotton wool on tha saint's body, and distribute them to faithfuls. On that day also a procession from Siena come to bring sacred oil used for the confirmations. Other great works in the church are the marble sepulchre of Maria Pereyra-Camponeschi (1488), Silvestro dell'Aquila's masterpiece, then in second chapel of the right aisle an altarpiece by Andrea della Robbia, consisting of an enamelled earthenpiece against a blue background representing the Resurrection of Christ, the Incoronation of the Virgin among the Angels, and four smallest scenes with the Visitation, Nativity, Magi Adoration and Circumcision.

S. Maria di Collemaggio is a large medieval church in L'Aquila, celebrated not only for its architecture, but also as the site of the original Papal Jubilee, a penitential observation devised by Pope Celestine V, who is buried here. The church, which therefore ranks as a basilica because of its importance in religious history, sits in isolation at the end of a long rectangular sward of grass at the SW edge of town. The church is a masterpiece of Abruzzese Romanesque and Gothic architecture and one of the chief sights of L'Aquila. The striking jewel-box effect of the exterior is due to a pattern of blocks of alternating pink and white stone; the interior, on the other hand, is massive and austere. Outbuildings include a colonnaded cloister, with the central fountain typical of many other similar Italian cloisters, and the former monastic refectory. The elegant Romanesque façade has the appearance of a wall, with a central door, embellished in the 15th century, and two smaller flanking doors; each door is a round arch set into a series of archivolts, and each is surmounted by a rose window. The main decoration of the façade, however, consists in the use of contrasting stone arranged in a sort of tapestry of cruciform elements. The façade is unfinished, lacking any customary crowning gables or other superstructures, and the addition of an octagonal belfry, now reduced to a stub after it had to be demolished after an earthquake, has made it asymmetrical. The three portals and three rose-windows are all different. The central door was significantly reworked in the 15th century, decorated with blank niches arranged in two rows over a base composed of square panels carved with floral motifs. A rear view of the church is much less successful, revealing an awkward congeries of various extensions over the centuries, mostly of the Gothic period. The interior follows the standard plan of a nave and two side aisles each one divided from it by a row of columns, from which arches support a tall wooden ceiling. The floor of the nave is in the same red and white stone as the façade. A major restoration, aiming to return the church to its original Romanesque appearance by removing accretions over the centuries, was completed in 1972. The church's principal monument, in the right aisle next to the choir, is the tomb of Celestine V. Commissioned by a guild of wool workers in 1517, it is the work of Girolamo da Vicenza, and contains the remains of the Pope in a silver urn. The present urn was made at the end of the Second World War by Aquilan goldsmith Luigi Cardilli: it replaces an urn stolen by French troops in 1646, which itself replace the first urn, removed by the Prince of Orange in 1530. The transept also includes two Baroque altarpieces, one of which includes a good 14th-century statue of the Virgin, often attributed to Silvestro dell'Aquila, a pupil of Donatello. The interior of the church is not profusely decorated, or at least not much decoration has come down to us, but includes 14th- and 15th-century frescoes by an anonymous local artist, depicting scenes of the Virgin's life: the Virgin Mary between St. Agnes and St. Apollonia, a Dormition of the Virgin, a Coronation. A Crucifixion with St. Julian (who is specially venerated in L'Aquila), an early 16th-century frescoed niche of a Virgin with Child and Saints, and fourteen oversized 17th-century paintings by Karl Ruther, a monk of Danzig, representing episodes from the life of St. Celestine.

The city Cathedral is named after the patron saint of the city St. Massimo and after St. Giorgio, from the namer of the quarter it was build in. It was build in 1257 on the structure of a pre-existing temple, but continuos eatrhquakes have destroyed all traces of that structure. St. Massimo today has much more modern features than in the medieval times.

The Spanish Fortress of L'Aquila - commonly called "il Castello" by the Aquilans, is one of the most impressive Renaissance castle in Central and Southern Italy. In the 15th century Aquila had become the second most powerful city in the Kingdom after Naples: there were half a million sheep, wool and saffron were exported throughout Europe; thanks to a clever ruling class, the city had a remarkable autonomy which was unfortunately lost when the Aquilans, during the war between the French and the Spaniards for the throne of Naples, sided with the French. In 1504 Aquila opened its doors to the Spanish conquerors. Then in 1527 the French recovered the city with the support of the citizens and the surrounding town. But just a year later Viceroy Filiberto of Orange, ruling for King Charles of Spain, finally defeated the Aquilan rebels and ordered the city to build a fortress in the highest spot North of the city, exactly where in 1401 King Ladislaw had built a garrison to control the unruly and rebellious Aquilans ("ad reprimendam aquilanorum audaciam"). Don Pedro of Toledo succeeded Filiberto and decided to entrust the fortress project to a celebrated Spanish architect, Don Pirro Aloisio Escriva , a great expert of firearms, who had begun to build Castle Sant'Elmo in Naples. The discovery of gunpowder obliged to new methods of defensive construction. Escribà was in charge of the project 2 years, leaving the task to Gian Girolamo Escribà. In the following 30 years the heavy taxes impoverished the city, which in 1567 begged the Spaniards to stop the construction of the castle; the Royal Court granted the request, and works were interrupted, so some parts of the castle were never completed. The Fortress had cost an enormous sum for the times, and Aquila was obliged also to sell the thick silver case containing the body of St. Bernardine from Siena. The Fortress, which had been built not to defend the city, but to control it (many cannons pointed to the city) and to be a completely self-sufficient structure, was never used in a battles. Its cannons, always ready to fire, were silent throughout the centuries: the only victim was the city itself, whose decline began with the construction of the fortress and went on under the Spanish dominion. Escrivà planned a giant fortress, made of four bastions connected through mighty walls, 60 meters long, with a thickness of 30 metres at the bottom and 5 meters at top. The walls were surmounted by massive merlons, with openings for the archers and the long-distance cannons. All around the fortress was a ditch (never filled with water) 23 meters wide and 14 meters deep, aimed at defending the foundations from the enemy's artillery. Escrivà did not forget any detail: the slanted walls would reject enemy fire to the sides; each bastion consisted of two separate and completely self-sufficient environments - called "case matte" - almost independent garrisons on their own. Also the aqueduct to the city was deviated so as to supply the fortress first of all. Moreover, Don Pirro planned a special anti-mine corridor, a kind of empty space between the outer and inner walls which could be walked only by one man at a time (and which can be visited today), aiming at defending the castle in case of explosion in case enemy soldiers excavated tunnels to leave mines at the foundations. A whole hill was leveled down to supply the white stone necessary for the fortress, while the city's bells were melted to make the cannons. In 1798 the citizens fought against the French who had invaded Italy, attacking, in vain, the Fortress. From then on, the building was used as a prison. After 1860 it became a military headquarters, and in the Second World War was occupied and damaged by the Germans. Between 1949 and 1951 the castle was restored, and chosen as the seat of the Museo Nazionale d'Abruzzo. The entrance is through a bridge in stone, passing under a portal with the giant coat-of-arms of Emperor Charles V. The Museum is on three floors: on the ground floor, there is the giant skeleton of an Elephas Meridionalis (improperly called mammoth, scientific name Archidiskon) found a few miles from Aquila in 1954, and an archeological section with pieces of the Italic, pre-Roman period, a section with inscriptions and pieces from the Roman towns in Abruzzo, among them a fine Roman calendar from Amiternum (25 AD). On the first floor the medieval and modern art section, with works of Abruzzese artists of the centuries 13th to 17th such as: the Polyptich by Jacobello del Fiore; a Processional Cross by Nicola from Guardiagrele, a group of wooden and terracotta sculptures such as St. Sebastian work of Silvestro dell'Aquila; then paintings by Flemish and Roman and Neapolitan artists such as Conca, Bedeschini, Solimena, De Mura; finally the contemporary art section with such artists as M. Vaccari, R. Guttuso, V. Guidi, G. Capogrossi, O. Tamburi, R. Brindisi.

Outside the town is the Fontana delle novantanove cannelle. This is one of the oldest and most characteristic monuments, almost a symbol of the city. It was build at the request of the Tuscan Governor, Lucchesino Aleta, by Tancredi da Pentina, who made it in 1272. Its originality is observed not only in its trapezoid shape and in the stone masques, each one different from the other, but also in the fact that the source of water supplyng the fountain is unknown. According to tradition, the masques represent the lords of he castles who contributed to the founding of the city. The gracious wall which sorrounds it, built in rose and white stone quarried at Genzano di Sassa, like that of S.Maria di Collemaggio, is certainly of a later date, being of the 15th century.In front of the 99 cannelle there is San Vito the church.

A church of Romanesque-Gothic style, it was built in the first half of the 14th century. A series of 15th century frescoes in the apse, executed by an unknown artist, which represents scene from the life of christ, a Pietà, Saints and Prophets makes it most interesting. The facade, with a beautiful Romanesque door-way and its characteristic rose-window, dominates a quiet piazza where the Branconio Palace also stands. The restoration of the interior, carried out in the late 1960' s revealed the original antique building with ogival arches. The Branconio Chapel to the left of the main altar, should be visited. Here, the famous painting "The Visitation" by Raffaello Sanzio, donated by the artist to his Aquilan friend, Giambattista Branconio, was originally placed. The work has been substituted by a copy, as a original painting was presented by the Church to the King of Spain, Philip VII, in the second half of the 17th cent. It is now in the Prado in Madrid.