Italy’s deadliest earthquake in three decades damaged some of the country’s oldest monuments, including the medieval dome of a 13th-century church that survived another quake three centuries ago.

The remote and mountainous region of Abruzzo, where the earthquake on April 6 hit hardest, includes well preserved medieval and Renaissance towns that are home to some of the country’s priceless art works.

The quake, which killed at least 179 people, destroyed the Romanesque church of Maria di Collemaggio, a masterpiece of gothic architecture built under Pope Celestine V in the regional capital of L’Aquila.

“The damage done to Italy’s cultural heritage has been enormous,” Vittorio Sgarbi, an art critic who served as an undersecretary at the Ministry of Culture in 2001, said in a telephone interview today.

The Renaissance bell tower of San Bernardino di Siena, which survived a 1703 earthquake, was reduced to rubble in the wave of more than 200 tremors that followed yesterday’s main 6.3 magnitude quake.

“We’re setting up a special fund to revive our architectural treasures,” Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday at a news conference in L’Aquila.

Italian corporations are also taking part in the drive to rebuild the country’s cultural heritage. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA said yesterday that it will contribute to the cost of rebuilding San Bernardino di Siena, which holds the body of the city of Siena’s patron saint.

National Museum

Forte Spagnolo, built by a former Spanish viceroy and now home to the National Museum of Abruzzo was another earthquake casualty.

San Liberatore a Maiella, rebuilt in the 11th century after being knocked to the ground in a quake in 990, survived yesterday’s quake intact.

Italy lies to the north of a zone where the African and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. The plates continuously rub against each other, sometimes causing earthquakes.

The quake in Abruzzo was the largest since 1980, when almost 3,000 people were killed in an earthquake near Naples.