Today while telling my tour guests about the restoration of the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi after the 1997 earthquake, I added “and feast your eyes on this splendor, remembering that seeing this with your own eyes is not the same as seeing it in a book.” The earthquake of 1997 underscored that for us: the upper level of the Basilica di San Francesco was closed for two years of restoration. Two years with no access to the splendor: for those of us in Assisi, a heartbreak.
…and I am heartsick once again as I think that the splendors of the San Salvatore church (origins date to the 12th c) outside of Campi (near Norcia) might be lost forever. The earthquake at 9 18 pm on October 26, 2016 devastated the church. This is how I remember the church from my discovery of the splendor about four years ago:
…and ah, the wonders inside:
I still remember a curiosity: the plethora of frescoes depicting San Sebastiano, a saint often evoked during outbreaks of the bubonic plague. Why so many in one church?
..and I remember, too, the scaffolding indicating that some structural restoration was needed. I wonder if it was ever completed..?
No matter now: San Salvatore is a mountain of rubble.
Click here for more about this wonder
See San Salvatore near Campi before and after the earthquake
See the destruction of San Salvatore on Youtube
Read where we were the night of the October earthquake
Click here to read about the August 24, 2016 earthquake damage in Umbria
Read about earthquake benefit dinners
Read more on the benefit dinners following the earthquake
Click here for news on our benefit dinner starring pasta all’amatriciana
Click here to read about Visso, near Campi, also damaged in the October, 2016 earthquake
Read about the curious history of Preci (near Oct 30 2016 quake epicenter) – and earthquake damage
Click here for news on the glorious Benedictine abbey of Sant’Eutizio (outside Preci)
Read about the earthquake trauma of missing cemetery visits on November 2nd
See the recipe for pasta alla norcina (a possible earthquake-benefit dish)
Read about Castelluccio di Norcia and lentils as quake solidarity
Read about Norcia’s norcinerie, needing a comeback
Read about Cascia and earthquake concerns there
What a gem of a church, such beauty inside and out, and what a terrible loss to the people to whom it means so much.
When churches are destroyed, a community loses a spiritual anchor.
When traveling, my first stop in almost any town is the church; I see the history of a community as well as its spiritual groundings. Always fascinating and uplifting. Frescoes, burials, columns, carvings — they each tell a story, and those stories must be preserved. Let us hope for the optimal restoration / reconstruction / preservation outcome.