Italy has gained great sympathy and acknowledgement in Armenia firstly thanks to the solidarity expressed by the Italian people after the terrible earthqake of December in 1988, when 25 thousand people died, while 517 thousand people remained homeless. To this regard, Italy can be considered, without any doubt, the first country to respond: it was the first among the 111 countries that gave hand to Armenia (even before the Soviet Union). On the evening of December 8, the Italians were already in Spitak, the epicentre of the earthquake. In February-March 1989 the first prefabricated buildings or MAPI (Italian prefabricated buildings) equipped with furniture and heating arrived. There are 204 such buildings on the whole, which exists up to now. This agglomerate of prefabricate buildings was given the name of the "Italian Village" by the Armenian population in the memory of Italy's generosity in such a tragic event. "The Italian Village" also includes a pediatric ambulance station, which at first served the whole region of Spitak, and an art school. The Italians also contributed to the construction of 4 prefabricated houses for the Nuns of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (only one of them remained).

 

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