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Saturday, January 2, 1999 Published at 21:37 GMT
World: Europe
A crash from the cupola
The block could have injured a visitor to the chapel
The Medici chapel - Michelangelo's first architectural work and one of the main tourist sites in the Italian city of Florence - has been closed after a brick-sized block of marble crashed from a column.
The block, weighing several kilograms, fell during the night from the cupola.
![[ image: The block could have destroyed a piece of pricelesss sculpture - or a tourist]](/olmedia/245000/images/_246893_chapel150.jpg) |
| The block could have destroyed a piece of pricelesss sculpture - or a tourist |
According to a local official, the consequences could have been lethal if the incident had occurred during the day with hundreds of visitors around.
Fearing further collapses, the city's cultural authorities decided to close the New Sacristy to the public and call in experts to examine the damage.
Around 400,000 people visit the New Sacristy every year.
The chapel houses some of Michelangelo's finest sculpture, not to mention the tombs of several members of the Medici family.
Michelangelo began building the chapel in 1520 but left it unfinished when he left Florence in 1534.
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