April 17, 2020 – The north spire of the Zagreb Cathedral was destroyed by dynamite on Friday afternoon.
While it was the south spire of Zagreb Cathedral to suffer damage from the earthquake in the capital last month, the north spire was destroyed as well for safety reasons on Friday.
Namely, after a series of drone inspections and surveys, statists unanimously decided that part of Zagreb Cathedral’s north spire must be removed as it threatens to collapse on the side of the cathedral, Jutarnji List reported at the beginning of the month.
Immediately after the earthquake, the north spire had been badly damaged and was inspected by experts who had examined the cathedral. At that moment, however, no one wanted to confirm that it would need to be removed.
Statics that climbed to the point of the damage noted that there was a displacement of about five inches.
“The north spire will be removed to the point that the top of the south tower has collapsed,” said Ivan Hren, who has led the renovation of the cathedral for a long time. The top of the cathedral weighs 30 tons and is 13.5 meters long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v=55kWPPWUgNQ
The controlled explosion was supposed to take place on Wednesday and Thursday, but was delayed both times due to inclement weather.
Preparations for the explosion have been ongoing and the began once the experienced demolition team was met with favorable weather conditions.
Recall, the day after the Croatian capital was effectively shut down, residents of Zagreb were rocked by a 5.3 magnitude earthquake at 06:24 on March 22, 2020, whose epicenter was 7 km north of the city. A second earthquake hit just 30 minutes later, 9km north of Zagreb, with a magnitude 5.0.
The Zagreb earthquake aftermath saw roads of rubble and many damaged buildings, one of which was the famous Zagreb Cathedral.
The stone top of the south spire collapsed in the quake and the fracture occurred at the height of the lantern at 92 meters.
The stone fell partly on the scaffolding, which had just been adapted to the works completed in the third stages of rebuilding the south spire, and in doing so damaged part of the third gallery completed just before Christmas.
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