L'Aquila, whose name means "The Eagle" in Italian, was built around 1240 by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and was under French, Spanish and papal domination during the centuries. The high-flying bird was both the emblem of Frederick and reflects the 2,300-foot altitude of the proud city.
Proietti said in a telephone interview that reports from the countryside showed many villages around L'Aquila had been heavily damaged, including churches "of great historical interest".
Damage to monuments was reported as far as Rome, with minor cracks at the thermal baths built in the 3rd century by Emperor Caracalla, he said.
A makeshift tent city was set up on a sports field on the outskirts of L'Aquila. Civil protection officials distributed bread and water to evacuees.
"It's a catastrophe and an immense shock," said Renato Di Stefano, who moved his family to the camp. "It's struck in the heart of the city. We will never forget the pain."
It was Italy's deadliest quake since Nov. 23, 1980, when one measuring 6.9-magnitude hit southern regions, leveling villages and killing 3,000.
Many modern structures have failed to hold up to the rigors of quakes along Italy's mountainous spine or in coastal cities like Naples. Despite warnings by geologists and architects, some of these buildings have not been retrofitted for seismic safety.
"The collapses that occurred in Abruzzo involved houses that weren't built to withstand a quake that wasn't particularly violent," said Enzo Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology.
"We get all worked up after every earthquake, but it's not in our culture to construct buildings the right way in a quake zone, that is, build buildings that can resist (quakes) and retrofit old ones. This has never been done," Boschi said.
The last major quake in central Italy was a 5.4-magnitude temblor that struck the south-central Molise region on Oct. 31, 2002, killing 28 people, including 27 children who died when their school collapsed.
(Agencies via China Daily March April 7, 2009)
