Category: Italian context
World Media Are Noting The Earthquake Damage To Italy’s Priceless Historical Heritage
Posted by Peter Quennell
[Above, the unity prime minister, Mr Monti, inspects the damage]
This post explained why Italy has such bad earthquakes.
The two halves of the country are separating, and the Apennines are slowly sinking down down. Perugia is at almost dead-center of that mountain range. This post described why despite that, Perugia may be at somewhat less risk than neighboring towns.
Sunday’s earthquake hit approximately midway between Perugia and Venice, at the top right-hand corner of the earthquake zone. Seven deaths are reported, and cultural icons destroyed by the thousands.
Media have very widely reported the historical and cultural damage. This is from the report by Reuters.
San Felice Sul Panaro was just one town where the quake inflicted severe wounds on centuries of heritage, memory and tradition, in some cases erasing them.
“A thousand years of art has turned to dust,” was the headline in Monday’s La Repubblica newspaper.
The damage done to Italy’s artistic heritage was the greatest since a 1997 earthquake hit the central Umbria region and parts of the ceiling of the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi collapsed.
San Felice’s three main churches were in ruins and the town’s trademark Castle, La Rocca, was standing but wounded, perhaps fatally, by the 6.0 magnitude quake that hit Italy early on Sunday…
Started in 1332 by the Este family and enlarged in the following century, La Rocca housed a museum and was the town’s main tourist draw.
Only one of the castle’s four towers was left standing and a wide V-shaped crack in its brickwork suggested it too might fall.