REBIRTH OF EMBLEMATIC EARTHQUAKE TOWN
The 15th century Cathedral of Saints Giacomo e Filippo, Finale Emilia (Modena, Emilia Romagna) after a difficult twelve-year restoration, finally re-opened for regular services this week. The town was at the epicentre of the devastating earthquake of 2012 that devastated a large part of central Italy.The small town of Finale Emilia became a symbol of the disaster, thanks to images broadcast worldwide of the historic Clock Tower, which remained standing, sliced perpendicularly in half, with its mutilated clock face.
The duomo lost its facade in the wave of 5.9º magnitude earth tremors that took the lives of 28 citizens, injured 300 more and left 45 families homeless. Restoration of the church, which has included anti-earthquake re-enforcement, and structural re-qualification, began in 2019, funded by the local Emilia Romagna Regional government, and subsidized also by the Italian government natural disaster programme for damage to art and cultural heritage.
However, the citizens of Finale Emilia will not be content until they have their iconic Clock Tower returned. The 14th century, 31.94m-high Tower (known as the Tower of the Modernness) dominated the town and the lives of the locals for 799 years. The estimated cost of rebuilding the monument runs to over 1 million euro and will be largely funded privately. The six-generation family-owned Molinari Caffe of the neighbouring city of Modena has started the ball rolling with an initial donation of 200,000 euro. Plans have already been approved for the reconstruction of a similar new tower of the same volume but built of lighter materials, that citizens hope to see rising once more above their rooftops.
In the meantime, a temporary clock tower on a metal frame was raised a couple of years ago on the spot.
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