What is Villalago known for?

Villalago sits above Lago Pio, Lago di San Domenico, and Lago di Scanno, the heart-shaped lake to the south. Hence the name. Lake-edge hermit cave where Saint Dominic of Sora lived around the year 1000, the chapel built into the rock in the 1400s. Finalist in the RAI Borgo dei Borghi competition, one of three Abruzzo commune to make the national final since the show began.

Villalago is a comune in the province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo region of Italy, about 94 kilometers from Pescara.

Abruzzo · L'Aquila

Villalago

A 930-meter village above three lakes, named for the nine that once filled the valley, with a hermit's cave on the water's edge.

930m

Elevation

94 km / 58 mi

Nearest hub (Pescara)

511

Population

May–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Villalago sits at 930 meters in the Sagittario valley between Scanno and Anversa degli Abruzzi, inside the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise. The name comes from the vulgar Latin valle de lacu, the valley of the lake, a reference to the nine natural lakes once present in the territory, most now gone. Three remain: Lago Pio for swimming, Lago di Scanno to the south with its famous heart shape, and Lago di San Domenico to the north, the artificial reservoir completed in 1929 by the State Railways to electrify the Rome-Sulmona line. On the lake's edge stands the Eremo di San Domenico, a small church built into a cave where, around the year 1000, the Benedictine monk Domenico di Sora lived. The actual chapel went up in the 1400s, the portico in the 1600s. The parish church holds an altar to the saint carved in stone in the 12th century. Villalago has been a Borgo dei Borghi finalist on RAI and is one of only three Bandiera Blu lake towns in Abruzzo.

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Gallery

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Known for

Eremo di San Domenico
Hermitage on the lake's edge, built into a cave where Saint Dominic of Sora lived around the year 1000, with the chapel added in the 15th century.
Lago di San Domenico
Artificial reservoir completed in 1929 to power the Rome-Sulmona railway, fed by the Sagittario gorge and held by a dam at the village's edge.
Centro storico
Stone-built medieval core at 930 meters with the parish church preserving a 1521 Madonna del Rosario and a 12th-century stone altar to San Domenico.
Chiesa della Madonna di Loreto
Small church in the lower part of the village, already documented in the early 14th century, the second religious building of medieval Villalago.
Riserva Naturale Gole del Sagittario
Gorge below the dam managed by WWF, with vertical limestone walls, vultures and Marsican brown bear sightings on the trail to Anversa.

When to visit

Best months · May–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May through October is the window. The lakes warm enough for swimming from June, and the trails through the Gole del Sagittario stay clear until late October. July and August fill with Italian summer visitors but at 930 meters the air remains cool by evening. The patron-saint feast of San Domenico in late August draws emigrants back. November through April is quiet. The high road from Anversa closes occasionally for snow, and the hermit's chapel sits locked. The lake in winter, mirror flat with the dam holding, is the photograph that comes back from anyone who makes the drive in February.