Cittàgazze

Cittàgazze (sometimes abbreviated to Ci'gazze), meaning "City of the Magpies", is a fictional city within an unknown world (and parallel universe) in the bestselling fantasy fiction trilogy, His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman.

The first reference to the city appears in the first volume of the trilogy, The Golden Compass (Northern Lights), as 'the city in the sky': the city visable during the Aurora borealis, an occurrence, which, according to the novel, thins the barrier between the dimension in which the story takes place and the dimension of Cittàgazze. The most expansive description of the city is given as Lyra and Will venture into it and other surrounding universes in The Subtle Knife. It is also mentioned in the final volume, The Amber Spyglass. The city is located within a parallel universe different from most others mentioned in the trilogy, and is reached through a "window-between-worlds" created by Lord Asriel at the climax of Northern Lights.

Cittàgazze is a seaside town, reminiscent of those near the Mediterranean, 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. However, it should not necessarily be considered "old-world". There is mention of refrigerators, which implies electricity, and indicates that a fairly advanced civilization must have existed there at some time, however rooted in "old world" architecture it was.

Perhaps its most significant feature is the tower called the Torre degli Angeli (Tower of the Angels), in which the subtle knife resides in the second book. However, the city is also plagued by deadly, ghostly beings called spectres. They are invisible to pre-adolescents, but once individuals are old enough to see them they become a threat, eating away people's dæmons (sometimes believed to represent the soul), thus leaving them zombie-like and lifeless. Hence, the city is entirely devoid of adults, but is populated by small rag-tag gangs of children.

The multitude of spectres in Cittàgazze is due to the fact that the subtle knife was created there; the knife can create apetures to other worlds, but each cut creates a new spectre. Thus it follows that the origin of the knife's creators would have been cut into most frequently, and would be most prone to overpopulation of spectres.

Cittàgazze is introduced to us in The Subtle Knife when Will enters through a "window" into its universe, it appears to be deserted, but the influence of life remains. We learn from children who later return to the city that the adults are elsewhere in order to escape the Spectre (His Dark Materials).

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