The Ministry of Culture is to fund the restoration of cultural heritage that was damaged during the earthquake on Wednesday, Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) said on Thursday.
An earthquake, which Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring center measured at magnitude 7.2, while the US Geological Service put it at 7.4, struck Taiwan on Wednesday morning, followed by more than 500 aftershocks as of yesterday, including more than 100 of “moderate” intensity, data from the Central Weather Administration showed.
The ministry began working with professional teams in each administrative region to check the damage to cultural heritage across the country after the major quake, it said in a news release on Thursday.
Photo courtesy of the Lugang Tianhou Temple
The ministry is to complete on-site investigations of the damage as soon as possible and provide funds for restoration work, Shih said.
As of Thursday morning, damage to 59 cultural assets had been reported, including 13 national monuments, 17 municipal monuments, 27 historic buildings, one cultural landscape and one group of buildings, the ministry said.
Among the 59 assets are four monuments designated by Hualien County, the municipality closest to the quake’s epicenter, including the Buddhist Yoshino Shrine (吉安慶修院) and Hualien Old Distillery (花蓮舊酒廠), which has been turned into the Hualien Cultural Creative Industries Park, it said.
In Taitung County, the Wan-an Brick Kiln (萬安磚窯) historic building was damaged, it added.
The Lujhou Li Residence (蘆洲李宅) in New Taipei City, a national monument, was partially damaged, with cracks appearing at the junction between an interior wall and the roof, it said.
Another national monument in the city, the Lin Family Mansion and Garden (林本源園邸), reported sunken and broken floors, cracked wood pilasters in rooms and cracked walls, it said.
The majority of damage to cultural assets nationwide were cracks on walls and floors at 19 places, and components falling off at 15 places, it said, adding that other cases included roof tile displacements, existing cracks expanding, damage to ancillary facilities such as fences, water towers and elevators, and structural damage.
Under Shih’s instruction, the Bureau of Cultural Heritage inspected damage at the Yuemei Tourism Sugar Factory (月眉觀光糖廠) recreation site in Taichung on Wednesday, and visited the Lujhou Li Residence and Lugang Tianhou Temple (鹿港天后宮) in Changhua County yesterday, it said.
The bureau also sought suggestions from academics and experts regarding restoration plans.
The ministry said that there had been no reports of major damage to cultural heritage sites so far.
Although the Huwei Sugar Refinery Plant (虎尾糖廠) in Yunlin County is a designated cultural heritage site, the chimney at the plant that fell down during the earthquake is not designed as part of the cultural heritage site, it said.
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