Italy’s “Love Arch,” a famous rock formation in the seaside village of Torre Sant’Andrea, collapsed overnight on Valentine’s Day after an extended period of heavy rain.
The now-collapsed natural landmark was a highly popular tourist destination in the Southern Italy region of Puglia for couples seeking eternal love based on the local urban legend which gave it its namesake. The formation, carved into the limestone rock washed by the Adriatic Sea, was the central piece of the Faraglioni di Sant’Andrea sea stacks.
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera detailed that bad weather and marine erosion caused the collapse of the famous landmark on Valentine’s Day. Mayor of Melendugno Maurizio Cisternino, who sounded the alarm about the incident, described the collapse as a “terrible blow,” and called for comprehensive measures to save the area’s natural heritage.
“On Valentine’s Day, we woke up to this sad news, which is a blow to all of us. One of the most famous tourist attractions on our coast and in Italy as a whole has disappeared,” Cisternino said.
Italian Senator Roberto Marti told Corriere della Sera descrived the loss of the Love Arch is a “deep wound” for the whole region of Puglia.
“This collapse is not just a natural event, but an unequivocal sign of coastal fragility that has not been addressed with the necessary foresight. We have been urging the regional council for some time to implement a serious plan to combat erosion,” he said.
According to local legends, the “Love Arch” had gained its name and international renown thanks to an urban myth that states that two lovers were “swept away by the tide while giving a tender kiss under the arch, tragically lost their lives right here.”
“The collapse of the Sant’Andrea arch in Melendugno raises concerns for both safety and environmental conservation,” Giovanni Caputo, president of the Order of Geologists of Puglia, reportedly said in a statement.
“53 percent of the Apulian coastline is at risk of erosion, and 839 landslides have been recorded in the region, with 63,000 people living in areas affected by landslides,” he continued.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6RY6wcCgTk
Several regions in Southern Italy have been hit with a streak of bad weather and intense storms over the past days, prompting Italy’s Civil Protection Department to issue a rain and thunderstorms yellow alert for the regions of Puglia and Sicily.
“The Mediterranean is affected by an intense westerly flow, within which several disturbed fronts are traveling from the Atlantic,” Italy’s Civil Protection said on a Saturday statement. “In the coming hours, a disturbance will cross the center of the peninsula and then extend its effects to the south.”
On Saturday, intense rains in the town of Fabro, Umbria, caused a section of the walls in the town’s historic Castle of Fabro to collapse between Saturday night and Sunday, leaving to injured according to reports from the local fire department.
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