The most famed and infamous prison
of ancient Rome was damaged Thursday when the roof of a central
Roman church fell in.
No one was hurt because the church was, as usual, closed at
the time of the accident.
The vault of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami (St Joseph of the
Carpenters), at the Roman forum, caved in, damaging the
Mamertine Prison beneath it.
The church is usually closed and only opened for weddings.
It was built between the end of the 16th century and the
start of the 17th.
A fire-service crane has got rid of some remaining hanging
parts of the caved-in roof.
The wooden beams, which are still standing, are visible
through the wreckage.
The inside of the church is full of broken beams and rubble,
fire services said.
Sniffer dogs are going through the wreckage as a precaution,
sources said.
The church's priest, who was in the building but not the
church, is OK.
The collapse has damaged the once-infamous Mamertine Prison
too.
"Some fragments of the roof," fire service engineer Luigi
Liolli said, "hit a part of the altar.
"A beam then damaged the Mamertine Prison too", where the
pavement gave way.
Colosseum Archeological Park Superintendent Alfonsina Russo
told ANSA the church was the property of the Vatican's Vicariate
of Rome.
She said the maintenance "is the competence of the Italian
culture ministry, while the underlying Mamertine Prison is the
competence of the Colosseum superintendecy".
The Mamertine Prison was used to house Rome's defeated
enemies, many of whom were executed there.
Among those held there were Vercingetorix, leader of the
Gauls during the Gallic War, who was executed at Caesar's
Triumph in 46 BC; Jugurtha, King of Numidia, who died of
starvation there in 104 BC; St Paul; and St. Peter, who was
imprisoned there before being crucified, after performing
baptisms in a spring at the bottom of the pit.
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