Irreplaceable: art experts fear the worst after earthquake damages historic Italian buildings
The Dutch classicist David Rijser, an expert on the culture of Abruzzo, said there had been damage to the central region’s many churches, funeral monuments and museums. “It has been a true drama, there is a lot that has been lost,” he told Dutch radio.
It has been a true drama, there is a lot that has been lost
Some of the greatest destruction was in Amatrice, which last year voted one of Italy’s most beautiful towns, celebrated for its Cento Chiese, 100 churches filled with frescos, mosaics and sculptures. Half the facade of the 15th-century church of Sant’Agostino has collapsed, taking with it the beautiful rose window. The courtyard of one of the town’s Renaissance palaces has been turned into a temporary morgue.
The town clock in the 16th-century bell tower remains frozen at just after 3.36 am, the moment the earthquake struck. “Half the town no longer exists,” its Mayor, Sergio Piorizzi, said despairingly.
The mayor of l’Aquila, a town where 300 people died in the devastating 2009 earthquake, has promised to take in hundreds left homeless in Amatrice.
In Pescara del Tronto the clock tower is the tallest structure amid the rubble of collapsed buildings in the historic core of the hilltop village.
