Crumbled Cultural & Historic Sites in Italian Earthquake May Get Outside-the-Country Aid

Over the last two days, I’ve been blogging the tragic loss of lives (now up to 260, including 16 children), and historic structures in the area of L’Aquila, Italy. I’m finding that most of the reporting, as well as the emergency aid, has centered on L’Aquila. However, the smaller communities in the area have taken a heavy toll themselves. It is now reported that 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed in the 26 cities, towns and villages around L’Aquila, the regional capital of Abruzzo.

I could find no new information this morning as deals with the State Archives in L’Aquila. We know it was destroyed, but nothing more beyond what was posted in my earlier blog has come to light.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said that other countries may help Italy rebuild cultural sites destroyed in the earthquake.

Berlusconi said he had discussed with some foreign leaders a plan for individual governments to offer to pay for the restoration of an individual church or cultural heritage site that had been damaged or destroyed.

Berlusconi went on to say, “The site could then be re-named after the nation that helped restore it, for example ‘The American Church’.”

• The earthquake devastated some of the country’s lesser known but equally precious ancient churches and slightly damaged the Roman Baths of Caracalla, 100 km (60 miles) from the epicenter.
• The Culture Ministry said the quake had partially destroyed at least four Romanesque and Renaissance churches and a 16th century castle.
• Part of the nave of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, one of the area’s best-known churches, collapsed. This structure, with its beautiful decorated pink-and-white facade combining Romanesque and Gothic architecture, hosted the crowning of Pope Celestine V in 1294.
• The bell tower of the lavish Renaissance Basilica of San Bernardino crumbled.

L’Aquila has a history of earthquakes and was nearly wiped off the map in one, back in 1703.

See my earlier blog.

See: Countries may help Italy rebuild cultural sites at Reuters

See: Berlusconi Takes Command in Wake of Deadly Earthquake (Update2) (Bloomberg)

See: More bodies pulled from quake rubble – AP

See: Death in the Mountains – The Economist