For over two thousand years, Pompeii has been a site of ashy ruins because of the inevitable eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Another tragedy has befallen this ancient city: another event that most experts say was inevitable. The Domus of the Gladiators was, at one point in time, a training site for gladiators before they went to fight at the amphitheatre across the path. It housed weapons and armor as well. Last Saturday, November 6, this famous building collapsed to a pile of rubble.
Experts say that this building collapsed due to improper drainage maintenance, meaning no drainage maintenance was being taken care of. It seems that while the entire site of Pompeii has over 400 employees, no one could be spared to take care of the important issue. Most of the employees are being put to work to heighten the touristic attraction to the ancient city itself. It has also been noticed that other famous archeological sites in Italy are not being properly maintained, such as Nero’s famous Golden Palace, the Domus of Chaste Lovers, and the Colosseum, all of which have experienced varying degrees of collapse over the past couple of years. The Domus of the Gladiators is just the latest in a long line of “mishaps.”
Italian academics and technicians are some of the most knowledgeable people in the world on how to handle art restoration; so why did this building collapse if the leaders in art preservation and restoration know how to handle it? These experts claim that this collapse was inevitable; it was in the roots of the building. They also declare that these famous sites are not given the long-term treatment for great husbandry, but rather a “short-term” glance at what will bring in tourists.
On the political repercussions of this event, Italy’s reputation and credibility have been extremely damaged. Most of the countries in Europe are questioning Italy’s ability to maintain their culture or if they are putting everything at risk. President, Giorgio Napolitanio, called this event a shame in his country, and Maria Pia Guermandi, the senior figure in Italy’s oldest environmentalist lobby, Italia Nostra, joked that Italy’s cultural sites should be handed over to the care of the United Nations, because the country can’t take care of them properly. Most blame funding for these restoration projects; the entire country’s historical society only receives .18% of the country’s budget for everything they are held responsible for. There are places in Italy that are in desperate need of an entire restoration and are rich with culture. However, they cannot even afford to hire a caretaker of the site.
This terrible incident has shed light upon the budget and administration mismanagement at a lot of the culturally rich sites all over Italy. The government is being greatly criticized and one politician at the head of the husbandry committee was asked to formally resign from his position. Hopefully, this latest incident has opened the eyes of the Italian government to give these places more money to take better care of them.
