800-Year-Old Tower Partially Collapses Near Rome’s Colosseum, Killing a Worker Trapped Inside

Octav Stroici, a 66-year-old Romanian man, was restoring the Torre dei Conti when the accident occurred on November 3. Several other workers were successfully rescued from the medieval structure

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

November 5, 2025

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A medieval tower near the Colosseum in Rome has partially collapsed, trapping and killing a worker. Octav Stroici, a 66-year-old man from Romania, was pulled from the rubble some 11 hours after the building’s initial collapse, but he died in the hospital soon after.

“I express deep sorrow and condolences, on behalf of myself and the government,” says Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, in a statement, according to the Associated Press’ David Biller and Trisha Thomas. “We are close to his family and colleagues at this time of unspeakable suffering.”

The 95-foot-tall Torre dei Conti was commissioned by Pope Innocent III and built in the early 13th century. The pope named the large military fortification for his family, a powerful household in medieval Rome. The Torre dei Conti is a prime example of the many imposing towers that noble families of the era built to protect their land and express their power.

The Torre dei Conti is located less than a mile from the Colosseum. It used to be much taller, but a series of earthquakes over the centuries damaged its upper floors, per the New York Times’ Elisabetta Povoledo and Ali Watkins. It was once used for city hall offices, but it’s been uninhabited since 2006, reports Reuters’ Angelo Amante.

In June, workers began restoring the tower, according to a statement from the city of Rome. The nearly $8 million project, funded by the European Union, aims to turn the Torre dei Conti into a museum. The renovation includes asbestos removal and the installation of electrical, lighting and plumbing systems.

On Monday morning, the tower’s central buttress fell in on itself, causing the base to collapse. First responders rescued three workers from the building who were unharmed, as well as a fourth worker who was hospitalized, Luca Cari, a spokesperson for Rome’s firefighters, tells the AP.

Meanwhile, Stroici remained trapped in the structure. Not long after the initial collapse, part of the tower’s stairwell and roof also gave way, which hindered rescue efforts.

To get to Stroici, first responders attempted to enter through the tower’s first-floor window, but they stopped when the structure continued to crumble. Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtier, told reporters that the rescuers were conducting “a very delicate extraction operation” to avoid additional collapses, per the AP.

First responders tried several additional rescue methods throughout the day. Near dusk, a crane hoisted firefighters to the second-floor window, where they used large tubes to suck out rubble. During at least part of this time, Stroici was conscious and communicating with rescuers, wearing an oxygen mask, according to the AP. “The operation lasted a long time because every time a part of the body was freed there was additional rubble that covered it,” Lamberto Giannini, the prefect of Rome, told reporters.

Eventually, three rescuers loaded Stroici onto a ladder, brought him to a stretcher on the ground and wheeled him into an ambulance. When Stroici arrived at the hospital, he was in cardiac arrest and could not be revived.

“We extend our sincere condolences to his grieving family and loved ones,” Romania’s ministry of foreign affairs wrote on social media. “Together with them, we held on to hope until the very last moment.”

Italian prosecutors are currently investigating possible charges of “culpable disaster and manslaughter,” reports the Italian news agency ANSA. According to the city’s statement, earlier tests (such as structural surveys, load tests and core sampling) had determined that it was safe to begin renovations on the Torre dei Conti. The tower remains standing, though it has sustained extensive damage.

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Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in Chicago.