The Earthquake has Devastated some of Italy's Great Cultural Treasures
For the first time in decades, church bells did not ring on Easter Sunday in L'Aquila, Italy. The last time this city was silenced in this way was during World War II, when the Abruzzo region was a battlefield between German and Allied fighters. This time it was because all the bell towers had collapsed in an April 6 earthquake that killed nearly 300 people and damaged every building in this town of 70,000.
As emergency workers continued to search for survivors, officials of Italy's Ministry of Culture began to sift through the rubble for fragments of frescoes, ancient statues and pieces of medieval, baroque and Romanesque architecture. It's become apparent in the past week that Italy's cultural heritage has suffered a great loss. Of the region's 105 churches, 99 were severely damaged. Those structures that seemed reparable in the immediate aftermath, like the cupola on the 18th-century Santa Maria del Suffragio in the city's main square, eventually collapsed during aftershocks.
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As emergency workers continued to search for survivors, officials of Italy's Ministry of Culture began to sift through the rubble for fragments of frescoes, ancient statues and pieces of medieval, baroque and Romanesque architecture. It's become apparent in the past week that Italy's cultural heritage has suffered a great loss. Of the region's 105 churches, 99 were severely damaged. Those structures that seemed reparable in the immediate aftermath, like the cupola on the 18th-century Santa Maria del Suffragio in the city's main square, eventually collapsed during aftershocks.
Source & Full Story
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