Sopravvivere ai terremoti, raccogliere e interpretare i frammenti: il contributo della storia dell’arte medievale

Surviving earthquakes, collecting and interpreting fragments: the contribution of the history of medieval art. A city never remains the same, but, like a living organism it changes incessantly over time. This obvious observation also applies to historic Italian cities. In fact, every street and square, every church or building needs to be read and interpreted as a schedule of strata. Scholars of medieval art history are well aware of this, accustomed to dealing with the fragment, with only apparently insignificant clues, yet these are decisive to virtually go back to the original whole, in order to understand them not only in relation to the past from which they descend, but also in relation to the reasons for their conservation in contexts radically modified by human intervention or natural disasters. Rereading the history of the medieval artistic heritage of the city of L’Aquila and its territory from this point of view is a particularly stimulating exercise. Founded in 1254, L’Aquila was a ‘modern’ city when compared with the main cities of the Kingdom of Sicily. Although hit by numerous seismic events almost from its origins, L’Aquila was never abandoned by its citizens, who always wanted to rebuild it, repairing or rebuilding the most damaged buildings ab imis. However, architectural remains and the fragments of mural paintings dating back to the Middle Ages have not always been removed or hidden by the new. Indeed, it has happened that in some cases they have been deliberately preserved, to be reactivated and re-functionalized in the altered civic and urban landscape, even for reasons other than mere economy.