The bells of Santa Maria del Suffragio church in the city’s historic centre chimed 309 times at 3:32 am on Saturday – the time the tremor hit a decade ago – in memory of the dead.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte were among those who joined local residents for Saturday’s candlelit commemoration in the town’s central Piazza Duomo.
“The wound of a local community is a wound of the national community,” Conte said.
“We have a duty not to forget, but above all we have a duty to be constantly striving to relaunch this territory.”
The magnitude 6.3 earthquake left at least 80,000 people homeless in the region of Abruzzo, and the city has begun to build quake-proof housing for them in so-called New Towns.
Quake-resistant Progetto C.A.S.E. (meaning “homes project”) apartment blocks now house 17,000 people.
Meanwhile, the medieval city’s buildings and squares are slowly being restored in a painstaking process.
While businesses are gradually reopening, authorities say a vast amount of work remains to be done.
“The path of reconstruction has begun, but it is necessary to proceed with strength because a lot still needs to be done,” Mattarella said.
“Numerous houses await renovation, vast artistic heritage has been damaged in artistic centres partly destroyed by the earthquake.”
