The full extent of the earthquake's damage has yet to be assessed, but Giuseppe Proietti, Secretary General of the Italian Culture Ministry commented to the news agency ANSA that the quake's toll has been "huge." Much of the city's treasured Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance architecture is now gone.
The city's largest Romanesque church, the Santa Maria di Collemaggio, cracked at the transept and part of the nave has collapsed. The 13th-century basilica was the coronation site of Pope Celestine V in 1294. Other collapsed structures are the cupola of the 17th-century Anime Sante church and the bell tower of San Bernardino da Siena. In addition, it has been reported that the Porta Napoli, built in 1548 to honor Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, is gone.
Concern has turned to the National Museum of Abruzzo. A reported collapse on the third floor of this 16th-century castle has prevented anyone from entering the building to evaluate damage to the museum's civic and religious works, which date back to the 17th and 18th centuries.
In addition to the deaths, tens of thousands have been left homeless. The National Italian American Foundation has set up a special Abruzzo relief fund to aid the victims of the earthquake. Although the Italian Red Cross has not yet asked for international assistance, the US International Response Fund will be taking donations.
--Giovanna Palatucci
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I have great sympathy to those who suffered heavy loss because of this natural calamity that is beyond human control. National Museum of Abruzzo and Santa Maria di Collemaggio were the popular tourists attraction centre of L'Aquila. Loss to these places is indeed a national loss.
I really hope that the people of rome and its famous architecture can recover from this!
>Daniel Wheelwright said:
... Rome?! Look at a map.
Tuscany is my favorite. I just can't get over drinking wine in the vineyard it came from! In Italy!!! Can't wait to go back
now the ancient structures have collapsed:( it's so sad...such beauty to have fallen down. There's this one helpful site though that can help you though about those kinds of things, not just that but also about different things, http://baraaza.com/...it's a great site though :)
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I visit first time in your site here I got a lot of information from this site.I appreciate your work.thanks for the sharing lots of information with us.Shangrila Murree
These are all very beautiful and ancient places or destinations to visit; its very disappointing to hear the news.
Thanks
Kerala Tourism
This earthquake was caused by movement on a NW-SE trending normal fault according to moment tensor solutions.[6] Although Italy lies in a tectonically complex region, the central part of the Apennines has been characterised by extensional tectonics since the Pliocene epoch (i.e. about the last 5 million years), with most of the active faults being normal in type and NW-SE trending.[7] The extension is due to the back-arc basin in the Tyrrhenian Sea opening faster than the African Plate is colliding with the Eurasian Plate.
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