Quake-Hit Italian Town Looks to Food Culture for Survival

With Heritage Reduced to Rubble, Norcia Puts Hopes in Gastrotourism

Butcher shop Brancaleone da Norcia is one of the few to reopen after the quake devastated local businesses. Angela Giuffrida

NORCIA, Italy—The Chiesa della Madonna Addolorata, or Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, was a place of sanctuary for the people of Norcia, an ancient walled town in central Italy’s Umbria region.

Then its centuries-old roof was torn apart by a 6.6 magnitude earthquake—the country’s most powerful in nearly 40 years—on Oct. 30 last year.

Only the façade, with a niche containing a statue of St. Filippo Neri, a priest canonized in 1622, remains partially upright.

Opposite is a small shop selling fresh pasta, one of only a handful of premises in the town deemed safe enough to reopen ahead of what is usually a busy season for tourists.

 

The statue of St. Filippo Neri and the façade is all that remains of the Chiesa Della Madonna church. Photo by Angela Giuffrida