There were also countless pieces of art and artifacts in churches and museums across the earthquake zone, which touches towns in four Italian regions. The crisis unit of the Culture Ministry was created after an earthquake engulfed central Italy in 1997, severely damaging a number of monuments, including the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThis year, the Culture Ministry even created a task force that works with Unesco to carry Italy’s longstanding restoration expertise to war-torn corners of the world. Since then, squads of rescuers and Culture Ministry officials have entered churches, museums and town halls, all with an eye to saving the territory’s heritage, and its very memory of its past. They have wrapped steel bands around wobbly steeples and towers, working under the watchful eye of Culture Ministry architects and art historians.

Source: New York Times September 18, 2016 23:15 UTC