Heavy rains bring down Pompeii wall
Emergency meeting called after latest collapse at Roman city
Stones fell from an arch at the Temple of Venus at the Roman site near Naples on Saturday before a 5.5 ft high stretch of wall at a necropolis near the Porta Nocera in the city collapsed on Saturday night, pushing Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini to call an emergency meeting of site managers.
The damage was the latest in a series of collapses at the Roman city, which was buried by falling ash from Mount Vesuvius in 79AD before its perfectly preserved streets were excavated in 1748.
The alarm was first raised in 2010 when the frescoed House of the Gladiators collapsed, prompting a 105 million euro cash injection, partly backed by the EU, with conservation work getting under way last February.
But one expert warned the money would not stop the collapses if managers continued to overlook the day to day, low cost maintenance, such as clearing drainage channels, that prevents the site becoming water logged.
“Months in to the programme, nothing is being done to reduce the risk of rain,” said Maria Pia Guermandi, a Pompeii expert with heritage group Italia Nostra.
“The EU money is being focused on the restoration of a few important houses, but Pompeii doesn’t need expert restorers, it needs workmen who can provide daily maintenance. These two new collapses show the situation is still out of control.”
Apart from Pompeii, other historical sites in Italy have also been threatened this winter by the torrential rains which have pummelled the country.
On Thursday, a massive chunk of rock face – 500 feet across -- split away and thundered down from the rocky outcrop of San Leo in Emilia Romagna, narrowly sparing the houses and castle perched on top of the outcrop.
Visited by St Francis and Dante, San Leo was made famous in 1791 when the pope imprisoned the freemason and occultist Alessandro Cagliostro in the castle’s dungeon.
In January, following downpours, a 60 yard stretch of the mediaeval wall surrounding the Tuscan hill town of Volterra collapsed, forcing the evacuation of some housing at the popular tourist destination.
This winter, rough seas in Calabria swept away dunes protecting the pre-Roman archaeological site of Caulonia, putting at risk the valuable Greek mosaic featuring a dragon discovered there.