Quakes Deal Irreparable Blow to an Italian Region’s Cultural Heritage

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/world/europe/italy-assesses-damage-to-cultural-heritage.html?_r=1&hpw

For nearly two weeks now, teams of art historians, restorers, archaeologists and consulting engineers, accompanied by firefighters, have been charting the extent of the damage to historic buildings caused by the earthquakes in the Emilia-Romagna region on a disaster map that continues to grow.

The quakes — the first on May 20, with a magnitude of 6.0, and the second, a magnitude 5.8 that struck Tuesday — killed 24 people and forced about 15,000 people from their homes. They revealed the vulnerability not only of many modern structures, collapsing countless warehouses and factories, but also of the area’s historic monuments.

Dozens of churches bear the wounds, and towers crumpled as if made of matchsticks. Palazzos, fortresses and storied museums have all been closed, consigned to an uncertain future.