ROME – Italy remembered on Monday the first anniversary of the tremendous earthquakes that hit the Emilia-Romagna region, killing dozens of people, injuring hundreds and causing massive damage.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano talked to the nation saying the country was united by the pain and the memory of the event. “Tragedies of this kind inflict a serious wound on the entire country, which must unite itself in the pain and in the memory,” said Napolitano in a statement.
Italian Premier Enrico Letta visited the region to survey the recovery. “I am here to commemorate (the quake) and accelerate the reconstruction,” he posted on Twitter.
The first quake, registered on May 20th, measured a magnitude of 5.9 and was followed by another shock of roughly the same magnitude on May 29.
These two quakes and their respective aftershocks brought destruction all over the area.
The region’s economy, a powerhouse of the Italian industrial output eversince, suffered a huge blow, cutting an estimated 1.0% off of the contry’s entire gross domestic product (GDP).
10 percent of the production of Parmigiano Reggiano and two percent of Grana Padano was affected by the quake
10 percent of the production of Parmigiano Reggiano and two percent of Grana Padano was affected by the quake
Among the hardest-hit industries was the region’s prized biomedical and agro-food hubs. The Coldiretti farmers’ association estimates that the losses caused for the food sector alone amounted to one billion euros, which included the cost of damage to machinery and buildings such as stalls, barns, processing plants and warehouses at roughly 6000 businesses, and the loss of around one million wheels of the region’s famous Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano cheeses.
The European Commission gave Italy the green light to extend 2.66 billion euros in aid to farms and food processing plants. In December, the Commission itself released 670 million euros in assistance for the region and for surrounding areas that were less severely damaged in the Veneto and Lombardy regions.
It was the largest amount of aid ever granted under the European Union Solidarity Fund.
Along with the human and economic tragedy, the quakes also provide massive damage on the artistic and cultural treasure of the region.
When the second earthquake came, nine days after the first one, several historical buildings, already affected by the previous quake, collapsed.
The loss was inestimable. The castle of Finale Emilia, the cathedral and the dome of San Francis in Mirandola, the old theatre of Cento, the tower of San Felice, the churches of Poggio Renatico and San Possidonio were all gone in few seconds.
Some of the worst casualties in Ferrara – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – were the cupola of its 15th-century church San Cristoforo alla Certosa, the 14th-century show palace Palazzo Schifanoia and the Este dynasty’s former ruling seat the Castle Estense.
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