Italy, Borbona

Borbona is located along the Via Salaria in a valley formed by the River Ratto, close to ski resorts. The name appears for the first time in a document of the Abbey of Farfa and may indicate 'mud' in reference to the flooding of the valley. In 1153, a bull by Pope Anastasio IV refers to a church around which gather the people of country villas. In the first decades of the fourteenth century, Borbona is one of 99 castles of L'Aquila, in the Angevin Kingdom, and the processional cross of Borbona is the extraordinary testimony of this moment in history. The township became part of the vast estate of Margherita of Austria (1522-1586), the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Charles V. In 1616 the Franciscan presence in the area was strengthened with the foundation of the monastery of St. Anne. After the devastating earthquake of 1703 Borbona was rebuilt by the Bourbons of Naples (1731).