The "upper church" has totally collapsed.  (Some early reports blamed this
on the replacement of the traditional roof with a new steel structure in
the 1960s.)

The big Cimabue was badly cracked in th first 'quake, and according to
reports some leading conservators were inside and inspecting and
documenting the damage with some of the friars at the moment that  the
second shock brought down the roof and much of the walls including the
whole of the Cimabue and at least 2 of the Giottos.

Because of the rescue works and recovery of the dead (at least 4 insude
the church according to reports) much of the fallen masonry and
wall plaster seems to have been badly churned over, but now everything is
being sorted by hand fragment by fragment in order to separate out
anything with fresco fragments on it in the hope that the jig-saw puzzle
can be put back together again.

There is also much damage in surrounding historic town and cities: there
seems to be talk of complete demolition and full re-building of whole
historic zones in some areas.

Patrick Boylan

===============================

On Mon, 29 Sep 1997 [log in to unmask] wrote:

>      Does anyone have more information on the destruction of the Arena
>      Chapel in Assisi, Italy?  The articles I read focused on the
>      unfortunate loss of life, and only briefly mentioned the destruction
>      of the frescoes.  Please reply on-list if anyone has more information.
>
>
>      Wendy Wiener
>      The Octagon, the Museum of the American Architectural Foundation
>      Washington, DC
>