L’Aquila, Earthquake, Capoluogo d’Abruzzo, Terremoto, Perdonanza, Porta Santa, Celestino V, Federico II, Giubileo, G8 L’Aquila 2009

The Marsica Brown bear as been saved from extinction thanks to the creation of the Park

A former royal hunting reserve in the heart of the Appennine Mountains: the National Park of Abruzzo is an uncontaminated treasure of nature

Rugged limestone peaks, massif that harbour vast valleys and beech groves streaked by gravelled water courses. The province of L’Aquila harbours within its territory a priceless natural heritage, rich in biodiversity and protected by numerous parks and nature reserves that represent a model of environmental protection. The National Park of Abruzzo is one of Italy’s oldest protected parklands, the core of which had originally been established as a Royal Hunting reserve. In 1923, a Royal Decree ruled that these lands were to be set aside as a park to protect the mountain environment. Hunting and poaching threatened with extinction many native species that, in this part of the Appennine chain, present endemic features. The 1960s were the “dark ages” of the Park, drastically scaled down as a result of property speculation and deforestation. Today, more than forty thousand hectares surrunded by a broad protection belt preserve a priceless natural treasure, the salvage of which relies on the commitment of all those who believed in the environment of all those who believed in the environment protection crusade and, before that, the inaccessible nature of the area and the remoteness of the Abruzzo territory.

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The Appennine wolf roams the woods of the National Park of Abruzzo

The National Park draws many visitors and througs the years the local economy has been transformed. Originally dependent on sheep farming and forest exploitation, it is now a tourism-based economy supported by environmental protection education campaigns. Park visitors following the many nature trails may plunge themselves in dense beech, turkey oak, maple, black pine and birch woods or they may, after a three-hour walk, reach the tall Apennine peaks. Gentiana and Marsica iris add colourful touches to the undergrowth. The lucky few may set their eyes on the corolla of the Lady’s slipper orchid (cypripedium calceolus), an exceptional alpine orchid very rarely to be found on the Abruzzo highlands.
The fauna, including the meek and retring Marsica brown bear, emblem of the Park, the chamois and the wolf, is certainly what most strikes the visitor’s imagination, though sighting animals in the wild is not at all easy due to their natural distrust of humans.
The reintroduction of certain wild species and targeted environment intervention policies have led to an increase in the population of those species that had been, until only recently, on the verge of extinction with only a few heads remaining. Deer, roe deer and large birds of prey once again inhabit the park’s broad green valleys and craggy peaks; the Camosciara’s inaccessible dolomite rock amphitheatre will for ever be wholly protected. The park’s natural habitat is ready to withstand the challenge of time.

Dense beech wood groves abound in the Park's pristine territory

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