Cittàgazze

Cittàgazze (sometimes abbreviated to Ci'gazze), meaning 'City of the Magpies', is a fictional city in the bestselling fantasy fiction trilogy, His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman.

The city first appears in the second volume of the trilogy, The Subtle Knife, and is also mentioned in the final volume, The Amber Spyglass. It is a parallel universe within the trilogy, and is reached through a "window-between-worlds" created by Lord Asriel at the climax of Northern Lights.

It is a Mediterranean-like seaside town, which seems to have Italian-like roots. Its main features are quaint restaurants, parasols hung over circular tables beneath trailing plants, wide cobbled roads, and ancient architecture.

Specifically, it contains a tower called the Torre degli Angeli (Tower of the Angels), in which the Subtle Knife resides in the second book.

More importantly however, the city is plagued by deadly beings called Spectres. They are invisible to pre-adolescents, but once they can be seen, it means they are a threat. Spectres eat away people's dæmons (sometimes believed to represent the soul), and leave them zombie-like and lifeless. Hence, the city is entirely devoid of adults, but is populated by small rag-tag gangs of preteens.

Cittàgazze is also the name of the oldest His Dark Materials Forum where many His Dark Materials fans discuss not only His Dark Materials but also more personal topics.