Overview
In the province of L'Aquila, not far from the shores of the Fucino, a lake that no longer exists, there is an ancient forest of mysterious charm that you must explore.
You are in the territory of Luco dei Marsi, which was inhabited continuously from the Iron Age until the Middle Ages. Its name recalls this forest, the sacred forest of Angizia (Lucus Angitiae). Here stood a sanctuary where the Marsi people "in the mists of time" worshipped a goddess, more sorceress than deity.
Walk through the archaeological site in silence, amid the creaking of trees and, on wetter days, the opalescent vapor of fog rising like smoke.
There is only nature, but it is magical for its beauty, which bewitched the ancient people in search of the goddess Angizia. She was a healing goddess, snake charmer and sister of the better-known Circe.
The legend says that they knew how to recognize her dance step, in the vapors released from the ground at high altitude, between trees and sky.
Walk, still in silence, in the sanctuary city, known in Roman times as Anxa. It still preserves traces of the oldest fortified walls, the protohistoric remains of huts and burials dating from the 10th century B.C. with traces of terracing walls, cisterns, road paving, remains of buildings in opus incerta and reticulatum, and burials.
During maintenance work on the aqueduct in the 1970s, it was identified the artisanal district with workshops with kilns and a cultic area with fictile votive offerings, black-glazed pottery and Italic terra sigillata, datable between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC.
Three statues of remarkable workmanship were also found at the site in recent times, which are kept at the New Paludi Museum in Celano (currently closed).
In the centre, which suffered severe damage in the 1915 earthquake, visit the parish church of San Giovanni Battista, dating from the second half of the 1700s. It houses two gilded chalices of 15th-century Abruzzi manufacture and a rich processional cross from the 1500s.
To the south of Luco, you can also enjoy Leonardo Park, equipped with trails to reach the Longagna and Romanella mountains and the Orlando cave, a small cavity included in the Centopozzi karst system. On the opposite side on Mount La Ciocca there is a double-cavity cave known as "del Rimboschimento".
At lunchtime, try Panuccio, a single dish made with millet polenta or other ancient grains, ricotta ravioli with truffles and porcini mushrooms, and liver sausage.
What else to see:
- The church of San Sebastiano and convent of the Capuchin Friars.
- The church of Santa Maria delle Grazie
- The church of St. Antonio Abate