The Evening Mass was the second state funeral for victims of the August 24 disaster which flattened three areas: Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto. The first, held on Saturday, honoured victims from the Marche region, which includes Arquata.
Tuesday's state funeral was for victims in the neighbouring Lazio, which includes Amatrice and Accumoli.
The service, on the outskirts of Amatrice's obliterated medieval centre in the grounds of a Catholic home for the elderly, came as Italy observed a second day of national mourning.
Crews using bulldozers and steamrollers worked through the night to erect a huge, open-sided tented roof to shelter the altar and the seating area.
Rieti Bishop Domenico Pompili (above) read aloud the names of 242 people killed in Accumoli and Amatrice before urging Italian authorities to rebuild the towns because abandoning them would "kill them a second time."
He also warned that the reconstruction effort must not become "a political fight or a looting of various forms".
Italian prosecutors are investigating if construction firms or any others bore any responsibility for buildings that collapsed in the quake.
