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The L'Aquila Saffron DOP
Photo ©
WAPPY AL
Historians agree that saffron has been grown in the province of
L’Aquila since the 13th and 14th Centuries and that this
precious spice took a paramount role in the local economy from
the beginning. For centuries the ups and downs of L’Aquila’s
economy were related directly to the success of this crop.
Saffron provided a means of survival at many critical times in
the town's history and the residents nicknamed it the
"Vermillion gold."
International trade in saffron became so important that foreign
traders moved to L’Aquila to live, in order to better profit
from that business. This led to a thriving economy and also to
social, cultural and political relations between the local
population and those of Central and Northern Europe.
Because L’Aquila saffron can be propagated only by cloning, its
characteristics have remained unaltered through time. In other
words, L’Aquila saffron is like a living fossil, whose botanical
characteristics and cultivation methods have remained the same
over the past 600 years.
This means that saffron plants grown in L’Aquila are ranked as
cultivars or biotypes, based on minute biological attributes
that differentiate them from others, and which are caused by the
micro-climactic and environmental conditions found only in the
territory of L’Aquila.
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1997-2010 © Enrico Massetti
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