Palazzo dell'Emiciclo

The Palazzo dell’Emiciclo stands in L’Aquila’s Santa Giusta quarter, beside the public gardens of the Villa comunale. Its semicircular façade, added in the late 19th century, crowns a site that once housed a 17th-century church and convent of San Michele. The monks cultivated orchards behind the buildings, and later the complex became the city’s exhibition hall.

The building matters because it now serves as the regional council chamber for Abruzzo. After the 2009 earthquake it was rebuilt with 61 seismic isolators, the first Italian public palace to use this method. The restoration recovered the original cloister and added a semicircular underground hall for assemblies.

Visitors enter through the main porch into the former church nave, now called the Navata, where a large stained-glass window by Franco Summa fills the east end. To the right lies the glazed cloister, centre of the old friary, with offices above and service rooms below. Beyond the cloister a modern wing leads to the underground chamber, while the restored friary cellars now hold the regional library.