Two hypotheses compete over the name: Capo Giano, the head of the god who looked at past and future at once, or Casa Porciana, for the wild boar that still roam these woods. The coat of arms has made its choice: it bears a boar's head on a red field. But the rarest thing is what sits above it, in the chief of the shield: an actual landscape, with the village of Caporciano in the foreground and, behind it, the tower of the castle of Bominaco, the hamlet that is older than the village itself.
In 1254 Caporciano and Bominaco were among the castles that helped found L'Aquila, and the choice was paid for: siding with the Angevins, they took the assault of Braccio da Montone. After that war the village castle was never rebuilt as such: they turned it into the parish church, the tower became the bell tower and the fortress stones ended up in the church walls. To this day the apse cuts through a stretch of the old fortification's curtain wall.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Caporciano
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Caporciano, but an easy day trip away.