Vault collapse at San Francesco, Assisi, 1997

San Francesco in Assisi is an Italian Gothic building begun and consecrated 1253. “The sequence of events for this seismic event is as follows: At about 2:30 AM, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit the basilica. Coincidentally, Ghigo Roli, a photographer who had been photographing the Upper Basilica’s frescoes for months, happened to be in the basilica during the event. In his testimony of the first tremor, he recalls that immediately after the first tremor the air was filled with dust, and the floor was