AQUILA DEGLI ABRUZZI, Abruzzi, Italy, capital of a province, seat of an archbishop, 2,36oft. above sea-level, 5om. di rectly north-east of Rome, and 145m. by rail. Pop. (1921) 17,877; commune, 24,184. It lies on a hill in the wide valley of the Aterno, surrounded by mountains with the Gran Sasso d'Italia on the north-east. The railway from Terni to Sulmona runs through it and there is also a branch line to Capitignano, 20m. to the north west. A summer resort, it is cold and windy in winter. The high est part has the massive citadel (1535) of the Spanish viceroy Don Pedro de Toledo. The church of S. Bernardino di Siena (q.v.) containing his tomb (1454-72) has a fine Renaissance façade by Nicole Filotesio (commonly called Cola d'Amatrice). The church of S. Maria di Collemaggio, just outside the town, has a fine, simple Romanesque façade (1283-88) in red and white marble. S. Giusta, S. Silvestro, etc., have similar façades. Outside the town is a fountain with 99 jets along three walls, constructed in 1272. Conrad, son of Emperor Frederick II. founded Aquila about 125o, as a bulwark against the papacy. Destroyed by Man fred in 12S9, it was rebuilt by Charles I. of Anjou and its walls completed in 1316. It maintained itself as an almost independent republic until the Spaniards, masters of the kingdom of Naples from 1503, subdued it in 152I. It was seriously damaged by an earthquake in 1703, and twice sacked by the French in See L. Serra, Aquila Monumentale (Aquila, 1912), well illustrated.