An Italian coastal beauty spot known as “Lovers’ Arch” because of its popularity with couples on the move collapsed during heavy storms on Valentine’s Day in what a local official called “a blow to the heart.”
Faraglioni di Sant’Andrea, the site of an arch in the stone cliffs on the coast of Salento – the heel of Italy’s “boot” – has attracted romantically inclined visitors for centuries, with lovers traditionally proposing marriage, stealing first kisses or celebrating unions. Those who kissed under the arch were destined for eternal love, according to local legend.
But when a powerful storm swept through southern Italy at the weekend, the arch’s fragile structure gave way, reducing it to a pile of rubble.
Its collapse dealt a “devastating blow to the image of Salento and to tourism,” said Maurizio Cisternino, mayor of the town of Melendugno, near the collapsed arch, CNN said. “It’s a blow to the heart.”
The arch was formed by centuries of strong winds and high seas grinding away at the Calcarenite stone cliffs of the Puglia region of Italy, over the turquoise waters of the Adriatic Sea. The site, once a strategic lookout used to warn of pirates, became a magnet for lovers during the late 18th century.
Instagram photos have drawn thousands more couples to the arch in recent years, Cisternino said. Because it’s free and open to the public, it’s impossible to know exactly how much, he added.
Lorenzo Barlato, a local resident, proposed to his wife on the cliff overlooking the arch more than 40 years ago and the couple often returned for anniversaries.
“I couldn’t wait to get back,” he posted on Facebook after Saturday’s collapse. “Now, unfortunately, all I have left are the many beautiful photos I took of that piece of paradise.”
The area is so popular that hotels and resorts – many named after the arch – have sprung up to accommodate visitors.
‘Inevitable tragedy’
Warmer sea temperatures as a result of climate change are thought to be a driving factor in the extreme weather that has hit the arch, which was already damaged by Cyclone Harry in January.
But concerns about the fragility of the benchmark go back years.
In 2024, local authorities applied for a $4.5 million grant to fund a preservation project to combat coastal erosion, but failed to secure the money, according to Cisternino.
“It’s a tragedy that we knew was inevitable, we just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly,” he told local media on Sunday.
He told CNN that “nature reclaimed the arch, as it created it,” and said resources were needed to address the situation along the coast.
“Nature has been transformed: what was there 30 years ago is no longer there.”
The collapse follows weeks of violent storms across southern Italy. In Sicily, a landslide recently saw houses fall into a ravine in the town of Niscemi. Widespread flooding has claimed the lives of several people, including a man who died when his house collapsed near Rome last week.
Now gone, the remains of the arch will be allowed to wash up at sea, says the municipality. “Like a funeral,” Puglia tourism councilor Francesco Stella said Sunday of what was once one of the happiest places in Italy.
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