Showing posts with label Italy earthquake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy earthquake. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Italy Earthquake: Mayor of L'Aquila Live TODAY 11:05 AM EDT

MAYOR OF L’AQUILA IN USA - LIVE TODAY 11:05 AM EDT.


The mayor of L’Aquila, Massimo Cialente, MD, was on-air live from L’Aquila, Tuesday, April 14th, starting at about 11:07 a.m., New York Time.

He was on the Vincent Buddy Cianci radio show. Mr. Cianci is the former mayor of Providence, RI, USA. Click to hear the entire show.

Also participating will be Ronald W. Del Sesto [Honorary Vice Consul of Italy in Providence and co-founder of http://www.webvisionitaly.com/] and Carlo Ruggeri [formerly of L’Aquila, now living in Rhode Island].

The show may be seen/heard live over the Internet at http://www.630wpro.com/. When on-site, click on Video then Studio Webcam.



To donate money for the earthquake in L'Aquila send a check to:



Italy Relief Fund

49 Weybosset Street

Providence RI 02903

Monday, April 6, 2009

Earthquake in Abruzzo Italy: Inventory Damaged Art and Architecture

Italy is recovering from a devastating Earthquake that, at last count, killed over 150 people and injured more than 1500. Both numbers are expected to rise from Italy's earthquake that hit in the region of Abruzzo, East of Rome on Italy's Adriatic coast. Rescue efforts continue this evening.

Monday's earthquake in L'Aquila, Abruzzo, caused ''huge'' damage to the medieval city's artistic heritage, Heritage Ministry Secretary-General Giuseppe Proietti said. The apse of the Abruzzo city's largest Romanesque church, the 13th-century Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio, had collapsed ''from the transept to the back of the church,'' he said.

The Basilica, with its famed pink-and-white jewel-box façade, was the site of the coronation of Pope Celestine V in 1294 and thousands of pilgrims still flock there each year.

The Porta Napoli, the oldest and most beautiful gate to the city built in 1548 in honour of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, was destroyed in the quake.

There were also concerns for the National Museum of Abruzzo, which is housed in the 16th-century castle.

Created in 1950, the Museum unified the collections of the civic and diocesan museums as well as a private collection of paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries and includes a beautifully preserved fossilised skeleton of a prehistoric elephant found near the town in the 1950s.

The castle suffered a collapse on its third floor and is too dangerous to enter, according to Proietti.

''The store rooms where damaged works are kept safe are also in areas that have collapsed or unstable,'' said Proietti, who added that he was gathering a team of heritage experts from other regions to help salvage the works.

Elsewhere in the city, the cupola of the 17th-century Anime Sante church and the bell tower of L'Aquila's largest Renaissance church, San Bernardino da Siena, were also down.

The cupola of the 18th-century Baroque church of St Augustine collapsed, flattening the prefecture that held L'Aquila's state archives.

St Augustine was previously destroyed in an earthquake in 1703 and had to be rebuilt.

''Naturally there have been various collapses all over the city, with cornices, walls and pieces of roof often obstructing the streets,'' Proietti said.

Photo. San Bernardino da Siena, L'Aquila Apennine Mountains, The Anime Sante church.

For more news, video and information about Italy visit WebVisionItaly.com. For more about Italy's art and architecture visit WebVisionItaly's Arts Channel.