Perdonanza Celestiniana: the door on August 28

The Perdonanza Celestiniana opens the Holy Door of Santa Maria di Collemaggio on the evening of August 28 every year, closes it on the 29th, and has been on the UNESCO representative list of intangible heritage since 2019 under reference 01276¹.

A pardon from 1294, still being used

The Bull of Forgiveness issued by Celestine V in 1294¹ granted a plenary indulgence to anyone entering the basilica between the opening and closing of the door, and L'Aquila has kept the observance going every year since. UNESCO inscribed it in 2019 under decision 14.COM 10.b.19, with reference 01276¹, listing the city and province of L'Aquila as the community that holds it.

The 2026 programme ran from August 23 to 30. The fixed points inside it are the Corteo della Bolla, the lighting of the Fire of Morrone and the pilgrim walk, arranged around the two nights when the door is open.

The door itself

The Holy Door is a doorway on the left flank of the basilica, so called since the fifteenth century, with a fresco by Antonio da Atri from 1397² in the lunette above it. It opens on the evening of August 28 and closes on the evening of August 29, which is the anniversary of the coronation.

Pietro Angeleri da Morrone was crowned pope in this church on August 29, 1294¹ as Celestine V. The Bull of Forgiveness came in the same year, and the door has followed its calendar ever since.

A basilica that had to be rebuilt

The 2009 earthquake severely damaged Collemaggio, and the restoration was designed and directed by the heritage authority with sponsorship from Eni under an agreement signed in 2013. It won the European Heritage Award, the Europa Nostra prize, in the conservation category, as the only Italian winner of that edition.

The facade is the part people photograph: white and pink local stone, a horizontal top rather than a gable, finished in the first half of the fifteenth century on a site begun in the early 1300s.

Around it, the Capital of Culture year

L'Aquila opened its year as Italian Capital of Culture on January 17, 2026, with more than 300³ initiatives and three venues returned to the city: the Teatro Comunale, the Teatro San Filippo and the MuNDA at the Forte Spagnolo. The Perdonanza in that year sat inside a much fuller calendar than usual.

What the reconstruction of the city actually looks like now is in L'Aquila is still being rebuilt, and the title itself in the Capital of Culture pages.

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