After a town was completely destroyed during a natural disaster, it was rebuilt some distance away. However, the original remains buried under concrete, and many tourists have never even heard of it. Gibellina was a small town of around 6,000 people on theisland of Sicily, Italy. It was brought to rubble during a massive earthquake on January 14, 1968. Nowadays, there is the nearby Nuova Gibellina, which was built after the disaster to house residents of the original town.
To build the new town, a team of architects and artists from all over Italy was assembled, and the new town was complete with churches, piazzas and monuments. However, another work of art was soon to come to life on the site of the oldabandoned town, bringing to life its memory for visitors from across the globe. Located on the otherwise green hillside is heavy concrete, which reveals more than first meets the eye when you get close to it. The Grande Cretto, meaning the "Great Crack", is a landscape artwork brought to life by Alberto Burri in the 1980s.
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Its layout might seem random, but it is actually based on the layout of the original town. In a previous interview, Buri said of the now-iconic artwork: "When I went to Sicily and visited Gibellina, the new city had already been built and was full of artworks.
"I thought that there was little I could do in that place, so I suggested we visit the ruins of the old town. A curvy road, burning under the hot sun, winding its way inland, led us, after many miles of human absence, to a pile of ruins. It really struck me, and I was almost moved to tears. And I immediately came up with this idea."
White cement was poured over the rubble of the old town, but the project was only a third of the way done when funding dried up in 1989.
Buri died in the 1990s, and the project was still incomplete. However, to mark what would have been his 100th birthday, work resumed in 2015, and the artwork was completed.
Today, the impressive memorial spans an area of approximately 85,000 square metres, or 21 acres. Visitors can get a feel for what life was like by exploring the outlines of the old streets and the original layout of the town.
What had been a ghost town until 1985 is now a touching memorial to a town that was lost to the 1968 Beliceearthquake. As well as the town of Gibellina, buildings in Salaparuta and Poggioreale were also destroyed thanks to the tremors.
Source: Daily Express :: World Feed
