Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio

Try to imagine if in the pixels imprinted on the icon the arch that dominates the scene was the luminous threshold between the L'Aquila di pietra and the L'Aquila di luce.The verticals of the architecture rise like an abstract version of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, founded in 1288 by will of Pietro da Morrone, the future Pope Celestine V, and consecrated a few years later, in 1294, when the city saw one of the highest moments in its spiritual history.The circular rose window that is reflected in the water looks like a fragment of the checkerboard façade of Collemaggio, transposed into a digital language: the colored boxes ideally reflect the white and pink ashlars, broken down and recomposed in a chromatic grid that tells of L'Aquila's ability to be reborn after every fracture.In the background, the stylized mountains recall the profile of the Gran Sasso, a natural sentinel that embraces the city and guards its destiny.In this perfect mirror, where the architecture overturns in the water, we could also glimpse the shadow of Buccio di Ranallo, a poet and chronicler born in L'Aquila between the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century, who in his chronicles rhymed the foundation, destruction and rebirth of the city.