Storia demaniale della città dell’Aquila

This essay reconstructs the history of the town of L’Aquila. Our first focus is on the common lands left to the citizens’ use: woods and mountain pastures. In addition we analize the history of L’Aquila’s territory as a tax jurisdiction. L’Aquila was founded in 1254 as a union of smaller towns: the castles of Amiterno and Forcona countryside. Despite the union of the castles’ territories and the building of a new town « apud acculam », each castle retained its own common lands to be reserved to the citizens living intus and extra civitatem (inside or outside the new town). During the years 1529-1542 the unity of the territory of L’Aquila fell apart, and the old castles extra civitatem regained their territory, i.e. a tax jurisdiction; the « civitas intus » retained a smaller territory and gained the common lands of the ruined castles. The dismemberment of the territory of L’Aquila was recognized by the Regia Camera della Sommaria in a sentence of 1771, february 25.