Quake Damages Many Historical Sites

Some of the damage to Italy’s historical monuments from Friday’s earthquake:

Part of the vaulted ceilings of the 13th-century Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi collapsed. Walls inside the upper church were damaged, as well as one fresco by Cimabue and at least two often attributed to Giotto.

Also in Assisi, damage reported to the 12th-century Cathedral of San Rufino, dedicated to a missionary martyr, and to the red and white Gothic church of Santa Chiara, built in 1257-65.

In Urbino, cracks opened up in the outside facade and the inside walls of the Duomo, built in 1477.

In Nocera Umbra the bell tower of the cathedral, built in the Middle Ages, collapsed, as well as several other buildings in the historic center.

Major damage reported to the 13th-century cathedral in Bevagna and to the tower of the Romanesque Duomo in Foligno.

The main facade of the church of San Biagio e Romualdo in the industrial town of Fabriano was destroyed.

In Orvieto, the Romanesque-Gothic Duomo, started in 1290 and completed more than a century later, was damaged. Some marble pieces fell off its sumptous main facade, whose decorative effect was obtained by the use of multicolored mosaics and marbles. Also on the facade, bronze statues of the Evangelists were slightly displaced by the shakes.

In the small town of Tolentino, the 15th-century Church of St. Nicholas, was damaged.