L'Aquila's cathedral closes the southern end of Piazza del Duomo with a tall, white neoclassical front that looks more austere than the buildings around it. The current facade dates from a partial nineteenth-century reconstruction, after the 1703 earthquake had wrecked the medieval original; the 2009 quake then collapsed the central dome and damaged the apse, and reconstruction is ongoing.
When it is open — usually around services rather than as a tourist sight — the interior is sober and largely whitewashed, with restored Baroque side altars and a recently rebuilt high altar over the relics of Saint Maximus, the early Christian martyr who gives the cathedral half its name. The piazza outside is the real reason to come; the cathedral itself is best understood as a long survival story rather than a great artwork.