For a brief few weeks in January 2012, the sinking of the Costa Concordia attracted the attention of the world.
With its notes of hubris, heroism, and tragedy, the dramatic tale of an ill-fated cruise ship that ran aground off the Tuscan coast -- tearing a massive gash in its hull -- proved irresistible. Images of the 951 foot-long Costa Concordia -- a vessel more than twice as big as the Titanic -- keeled over just meters from Italy's rocky shores, and of Francesco Schettino, the dark-haired captain who seemingly turned coward when disaster struck, played over and over on televisions around the globe.
But then, the world moved on. And for more than a year and a half, the Costa Concordia waited -- half submerged, growing ever rustier -- for a rescue. The ship spent a total of 20 months on her side before she was hauled upright once again early Tuesday morning, in what the Guardian called "one of the most ambitious salvage operations in maritime history." Of the 4,229 people on board, 32 were killed in the wreck and two still have yet to be found. As for Schettino, he is keeping a low profile as he awaits trial on multiple charges of manslaughter and causing a shipwreck.
Here is a collection of images of the Costa Concordia -- from her glory days as a gleaming luxury liner to today, when, righted again at last, she once again captured the spotlight.
Above, the Costa Concordia as seen on Jan. 20, 2012.
The Costa Concordia, the largest ship of its kind built in Italy, was first "christened" in 2006 and reportedly contained "1,500 staterooms, 5 restaurants, 13 bars, four swimming pools, and one of the largest spas at sea." Above, the ship photographed on March 27, 2009 in Civitavecchia, Rome's port.
Carabinieri frogmen dive into the waters around the Costa Concordia.
The captain of the Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino (in the center, wearing a suit) leaves a Grosseto court on Oct. 15, 2012 after hearings convened to work out the details of the night of the Costa Concordia disaster. Schettino is charged with "abandoning ship," and his actions following the shipwreck inspired the name "Captain Coward" in the Italian media.
A photo of the Costa Concordia taken during sunset near the harbor of Giglio Porto on Sept. 16, some 20 months after the shipwreck. Salvage workers raised the cruise ship, in the largest and most expensive maritime salvage operation in history, with a method called "parbuckling," which involves rotating the ship via a series of cables and hydraulic machines. Parbuckling has never been carried out on a vessel as large as Costa Concordia before (the ship reportedly weighs 114,500 tons).
Senior Salvage Master Nick Sloane kisses his wife after the parbuckling operation, which succesfully uprighted the Costa Concordia, on Sept. 17.
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The severely damaged side of the stricken Costa Concordia finally emerges after the parbuckling operation succesfully uprighted the ship around 4 a.m. on Sept. 17.
This combination of photographs shows four different positions of the Costa Concordia -- after the cruise ship ran aground on Jan. 14, 2012 (top left); after the ship began to emerge during the salvage operation on Sept. 16 (top right); after it was turned upright (bottom left); and after it was fully upright on Sept. 17 (bottom right). You can view a time-lapse video of the parbuckling process -- which reportedly took approximately 18 hours to complete -- here.
