Tornimparte

The name most likely comes from the Latin Turres in Partibus, towers set in various parts, and the comune is still exactly that: a scattered comune of more than twenty hamlets, each on its own hill among the streams, with the town hall at Villagrande. In this area the medieval castles watched over a strategic road towards Campania, and of one of them, the Castellaccio, the ruins remain near Castiglione. Together with the neighbouring villages, Tornimparte took part in the founding of L'Aquila in the thirteenth century, and the trace of it is a church in the city, San Vito alla Rivera.

The church of San Panfilo, at Villagrande, has a plan with four naves, which is rare, and mixes Romanesque and Baroque elements; its frescoes were painted by Saturnino Gatti between 1490 and 1494. The church of Santo Stefano was already named in a papal bull of 1178; an earthquake in 1985 brought down its roof and bell tower, and at the end of 2011 it was reopened, restored. In the earthquake of 2009 this comune suffered relatively little damage although it lies only a few kilometres from the epicentre, and the reason is the ground: the inhabited part stands on tufa rock. Until the nineteen-seventies these beech woods were still being turned into charcoal in the kilns, and the old rite of Ju calenne called for a tree trunk to be cut and raised on the first of May in the squares of the hamlets, as a good omen for the harvest.