Peru quake damages colonial church, raising questions for Umbria’s seismic heritage

The Art Newspaper reports that a 5.1-magnitude earthquake on 18 July caused the collapse of the roof and part of the facade of the Iglesia Apóstol Santiago, a 16th-century colonial church in the Peruvian highlands that served as a major pilgrimage site. The quake also brought down homes and other religious structures in the province of Chupaca in the Junín region.

The destruction of the Iglesia Apóstol Santiago is the latest reminder of the vulnerability of historic masonry structures in seismic zones worldwide. In central Italy, much of Umbria lies in a high-risk seismic area, and similar damage has occurred in the recent past. During the 2016 earthquake sequence that struck Amatrice, Accumoli, and Norcia — widely covered by the international press — the Basilica of Saint Benedict in Norcia, a landmark of the Umbrian town, was largely destroyed.

Italian authorities have long grappled with how to reinforce historic buildings without compromising their authenticity. The 2016 disaster prompted a national programme of seismic retrofitting for churches and monuments, but progress has been uneven, particularly in smaller hill towns with limited budgets. Foreign reporting on the Peru earthquake highlights that these challenges are global and that the preservation of religious heritage in active seismic regions requires sustained international cooperation and funding.

For Umbria, a region with one of the highest densities of medieval and Renaissance churches in Italy, the Peru quake underscores the ongoing risk. Town squares such as those in Assisi, Spoleto, and Gubbio contain structures that were built centuries before modern seismic codes, and many have not been fully reinforced. As extreme weather and geological events become more frequent, the preservation of inland Italy’s cultural heritage remains a pressing concern that international coverage will continue to follow.