(ANSA)
- Naples, March 20 - An apparently fresh wall collapse added to
swelling alarm over the world-famous archaeological site of Pompeii
Thursday. The collapse initially appeared to be the fourth this
month, coming after UNESCO warnings the miraculously preserved
ancient city could "completely fall apart" and lose its
world heritage status unless urgent action is taken.
A
part of a wall came down in a little-known 'domus', or house,
officials said, suggesting this had happened earlier Thursday or late
Wednesday. But Pompeii's newly appointed superintendent, Massimo
Osanna, told ANSA the incident "did not happen last night and
initial tests indicate it was not even recent".
However,
the uncertainty over the exact date of the event did little to still
a groundswell of concern over the state of Pompeii. News of the
collapse came a day after the government unveiled extraordinary
measures including sending in 30 private security guards after the
wave of structural damage - much due to torrential rain - and the
recent theft of two priceless frescoes. The government says that it
will also speed up tendering for work on other new surveillance
measures including a more secure fence for the site, which has been
plagued by problems that have contributed to parts of the
2,000-year-old site crumbling.
The European Commission has
pledged 105 million euros for repairs and restoration under the
ambitious Great Pompeii Project for the world-famous site, created
when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, preserving the entire city in
ash. Security has also been sub-standard, critics say, and earlier
this week reports emerged that a portion of a fresco of Apollo and
Artemis was stolen at least one week earlier. Another vaulable fresco
was removed but mysteriously returned a week later. Pompeii has been
plagued for decades by accusations of mismanagement, neglect and even
infiltration by the local Camorra mafia.
Heavy
rain was blamed for a wall of a Roman-era shop collapsing in Pompeii
on March 3, a day after two other precious parts of the ancient city
- a wall at the Temple of Venus and another wall on a tomb in the
famed necropolis of Porta Nocera - suffered serious damage from bad
weather. These followed a long and worrying catalogue of bits of
Pompeii falling off. In November 2010 the House of the Gladiators
came down, prompting Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to say:
"This is a disgrace for the whole of Italy". In February
2012 a piece of plaster came off the Temple of Jupiter, one of
Pompeii's main attractions. Then, in September 2012, at the Villa of
the Mysteries, an even more iconic building, a five-metre-long flying
buttress gave in and went crashing to the ground.
Last
November, finally, a wall in one of the ancient city's main
thoroughfares, Via dell'Abbondanza, keeled over while another piece
of decorative plaster, at the House of the Little Fountain, dropped
from the ceiling. The latest collapse involved a wall in simple
brick, not frescoed, and located in an alley off Via Nola, one of
Pompeii's main streets. Officials said it was built using the 'opera
incerta' technique, bonding pieces of local limestone with grey
mortar. The area is not currently open to visitors.
Osanna
told ANSA Wednesday he welcomed "all the extraordinary measures
that may help us in the difficult safeguarding of this site". On
March 5 Italy's dynamic new premier, Matteo Renzi, vowed action to
save Pompeii. Renzi said Italy should "get over an ideological
refusal" to involve the private sector in cultural projects
after the recent collapses led the government to earmark two million
euros for urgent repairs Tuesday. "It is unacceptable that
people should continue to pretend nothing is happening if, while The
Great Beauty wins the Oscar, there is a wall in Pompeii that falls
down", said Renzi.
"Italy
is the country of culture and so I challenge entrepreneurs: what are
you waiting for? "We have to get over an ideological refusal
about the intervention of (the) private (sector), as if only public
intervention could ensure our cultural heritage is preserved,"
said Renzi, who has come to power on a fast-paced and radical reform
agenda. "If the private sector can keep the wall up why not let
it?", Italy's youngest premier said. The head of Italy's
powerful industrial confederation soon responded to Renzi's call.
"There are many people from business who have done their part,"
said Confindustria chief Giorgio Squinzi, recalling Tod's shoe
company owner Diego Della Valle, who is funding a major restoration
of the Colosseum. "We can certainly find the entrepreneurial
will to safeguard (the cultural heritage of the country)," added
Squinzi.
Della
Valle's Colosseum project has been the only high-profile
private-sector intervention on Italy's cultural heritage in recent
years. But the project has become bogged down in red tape and union
opposition. Osanna, Italy's newly appointed superintendent for both
Pompeii and the related sites of Herculaneum and Stabiae, asked for
an extension to this year's deadline for spending 105 million euros
of EU money to shore up the city miraculously preserved by ash. "It's
going to be hard to spend the EU's 105 million, we need an
extension," he said shortly after being installed. "So far
only 40 million have been allocated, and we'll need an extension to
try to spend it all by the end of 2015. "Even then it's going to
be tough", he said.
Osanna
also warned of a shortage of workers essential to maintenance such as
builders, carpenters and scaffolding riggers. "Many of these
have retired over the years and not been replaced," Osanna said,
calling for 80 new hirings. He said "architects and
archaeologists have been hired to face the immediate emergency"
after the three walls collapsed, the latest incidents in a long
string of well-publicised structural cave-ins at Pompeii. "But
the work force lacks the vital lymph of younger workers," Osanna
said. He said that because of a long hiring freeze and red tape, the
average worker at the site was aged between 45 and 60. "Unless
the workforce is renewed, the problems won't be solved".
UNESCO
in July gave Italy until December 31 to apply a series of upgrade
measures or face having Pompeii removed from its prestigious list of
World Heritage sites. The measures included video surveillance of 50%
of the area and a buffer zone around the site. Rome implemented most
of the measures and got an extended deadline for the others. In
December Italy named the former head of its prestigious art-theft
unit to head up the ambitious Great Pompeii project.
Giovanni
Nistri, a general in the paramilitary Carabinieri police who led
Italy's cultural asset-protection division from 2007 to 2010, had
"the right sensitivity for this job", then culture minister
Massimo Bray said.
Pompeii has been plagued for decades by
mismanagement, neglect, stray dogs, infiltration by the local Camorra
mafia, and frequent staff strikes that have left frustrated visitors
fuming. The European Commission has told Italy to increase efforts to
prevent further damage to Pompeii.
"Local, regional and
national authorities must do more and work together to ensure that
funds are used effectively and that Pompeii is saved for future
generations," Culture Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said
earlier this month. European Commissioner for Regional Policy
Johannes Hahn urged Italian authorities to take better care of the
remains of the once-bustling Roman city.
Hahn hailed Italy's
new measures. "I welcome with great favour the very concrete
measures announced yesterday by the culture minister (Dario
Franceschini) to safeguard Pompeii," Hahn told ANSA. "Our
commitment remains firm and we are ready to consider new financing
from the (regional) planning funding (earmarked) for 2014-2020,"
Hahn said. The commissioner added that two thirds of the tenders for
the Great Pompeii Project, worth some 73.8 million euros, "were
under way or have already been adjudicated". Meanwhile
Herculaneum was also hit by a weird theft Thursday when guard rails
protecting visitors to the ancient Roman city were stolen.
Police
said the theft of the copper-plated iron rails, along a walkway over
the site, took place earlier this week. Herculaneum, a onetime
seaside resort, is not as famous as its big-shouldered commercial
neighbour Pompeii but is unique because wood, cloth and papyrus were
preserved - as well as excrement that provided rare evidence of the
Roman diet. It is still being excavated, and shows more promise than
Pompeii of yielding treasures including lost literary classics.
Herculaneum gained equal footing with Pompeii at a sold-out show at
the British Museum last year. Pompeii lost all its organic material
because it was covered in scalding ash while Herculaneum was hit by a
scalding blast of heat that left fabric and skeletons intact.
Herculaneum
is seen as recording a more refined lifestyle and culture than the
rougher and bawdier Pompeii but Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, an expert on
the smaller town, reckons that it could turn out to be "just as
big a sin city, if a brothel is found". Wallace-Hadrill has led
a project to save Herculaneum, which until 15 years ago was heading
for ruin. The ancient resort had otherwise generally been free of the
depredations that have sometimes hit Pompeii.
