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Laquila Castle is one of the most impressive Italian Castles of the Renaissance period, lies in the Abruzzo region of Italy
The Castle consisted of four bastions connected by walls 60 meters long surmounted by great “merlons”. These massive structures had openings, which allowed the castles archers and cannon to unleash their destructive firepower upon the besieging army below. A trench 23 meters wide and 14 meters deep was excavated around L’Aquila. Its purpose was to defend the castle and help protect it from the opposing armies’ artillery. The angle of the ditch’s walls would deflect any cannon shot from harms way.
Each of the four bastions consisted of two independent environments called “case matte”- self-contained garrisons. Water for the castle was obtained via the town’s aqueduct, which had its course, altered to first flow into the castle then onto the town. A special feature of this Italian castle was an anti-mine corridor (a space set between the inner and outer walls which could only be transgressed by one person at a time) The purpose of the corridor was to help defend the castle in case of engineers tunnelling under the foundations and leaving mines. Laquila Castle was built not for defensive purposes but to control the city, with most of the castles cannon pointing towards the city. The cannons were never used in anger but remained silent throughout the history of the castle.
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Laquila Castle is one of the most impressive Italian Castles of the Renaissance period and is situated in the Abruzzo region of Italy. In 1528, Filiberto of Orange ordered the building of a fortress at the highest point North of Aquila to punish its citizens in response to their rebellious behaviour.
