The 1906 Vesuvius eruption

Deadliest incident of the 20th century

A dramatic colour postcard image of the 1906
eruption seen from the Bay of Naples

One of the most violent eruptions in the history of Mount Vesuvius reached its peak on this day in 1906, killing probably in excess of 200 people.

The volcano, most famous for the 79AD eruption that buried the city of Pompeii and may have claimed  between 13,000 to 16,000 victims, had been spewing lava for almost 11 months, treating the residents of nearby Naples to regular fireworks displays.

On 5 April, 1906, an indication that a major eruption was imminent came in a failure in the water supply drawn from wells on the mountain sides, with such water as was still flowing having a strong taste of sulphur. The expulsions of lava became more explosive and an ash cloud began to form in the sky above the crater.

In the preceding days, there had been an earthquake on the island of Ustica some 130km (81 miles) away, which was thought to be connected to the Vesuvius eruption.

On the evening of 7 April came the biggest explosion, as well as three earthquakes felt in the city of Naples, which were said to cause much panic, but no particular damage.

A photograph taken from Naples shows the huge
cloud of ash that plunged the city into darkness

That could not be said of some of the villages at the foot of the mountain, in particular Boscotrecase, on the southeast slope, which was effectively obliterated by a stream of lava as tall as a house and wide as a river.

For a while, there were fears that the ruins of Pompeii and the coastal city of Torre Annunziata - built on the ruins of Oplonti, another Roman city destroyed in 79AD - would suffer the same fate. Mercifully, the lava stopped short.

The 1906 eruption, which came to be known as the Grand Eruption, ejected the most lava of any eruption of which there are reliable records but it was the massive volume of ash rising from the crater that caused most of the deaths, estimated at between 100 and 200, with some reports suggesting as many as 216 casualties. It would remain the deadliest eruption of the 20th century.

The mountain itself was covered in a deep layer of grit and ashes, understandably. But for miles around, as far away as the plain of Sorrento and the island of Capri, buildings, trees and fields were coated in what looked like a fall of dirty snow. In the city of Naples itself, scientists calculated that some 315,000 tons of burning dust fell to earth, leaving streets and gardens unrecognisable.

The biggest single loss of life was in the village of San Giuseppe, to the east of the crater, where people crowded into a little church, imagining it would be a place of safety, only for the roof to fall in from the weight of ash. Many neighbouring houses suffered a similar fate. In neighbouring Ottojano - Ottoviano today - many poorly constructed houses were destroyed.

Vesuvius - or Monte Somma - as it appeared 
before the 1906 eruption blew off its cone

In Naples itself, the roof of the market of Monte Oliveto, in the old part of the city near the Spanish Quarter, also collapsed from the weight of ash, causing considerable loss of life. 

Residents who escaped serious injury had to contend with the threat to their eyes of falling cinder, prompting a busy trade in protective glasses and umbrellas.

The streets of the city were effectively in darkness for several days until a shift in the wind direction allowed the sunlight to shine through again.  Residents offered thanks to San Gennaro, the patron saint of the city, for deliverance. 

All the time there was a sense of chaos as 150,000 residents fled villages in the immediate vicinity of the mountain and descended on Naples, while the railway station was besieged by overseas visitors to the city, mainly German, English and American, trying to board trains out of the area.

The rescue efforts were shared between the army and the Carabinieri, who won much praise for their tireless work in digging among the rubble for survivors and clearing away a landslide that blocked the Circumvesuviana railway line. The royal commander of the army, the Duke of Aosta, visited in person with his wife, the popular Princess Hélène, to rally troops and raise the spirits of residents.

The people of Naples gave thanks also to Professor Raffaele Vittorio Matteucci, director of the Vesuvius Laboratory, who stayed at his post for as long as possible, despite the danger of being burnt or asphyxiated, to pass on vital warnings to citizens of what was to come.

The consequences of the catastrophe were not limited to damage to buildings and loss of life.  The cost of repairing the damage and looking after the thousands made homeless inevitably fell to the government in Rome, who had to abandon their plans to host the Olympic Games in 1908 on the grounds that they could no longer justify the expense.

The Games instead went to London, with Rome obliged to wait another 52 years, until 1960, to host Italy’s only summer Olympics to date.

After the eruption, Vesuvius itself - also known as Monte Somma - had a different appearance, losing its cone and around 170m (558ft) in height.

The ruins of Pompeii - with Vesuvius in the 
background - attract thousands of visitors 

Travel tip:

The excavated ruins of Pompeii - gli scavi - are among the most popular tourist attractions in Italy and many important artefacts have been dug up. When Vesuvius started rumbling in August 79AD and a sinister cloud began to form above it, some people left the area immediately. It is believed those who stayed died from the effects of the heat and their bodies were buried under the stones and ash for hundreds of years. Engineers rediscovered them while digging an aqueduct. The first organised excavations began in 1748 and the site soon became an attraction for wealthy Europeans on the Grand Tour.  Trains from the Circumvesuviana railway station in Naples run to Sorrento every half an hour, stopping at Pompei Scavi station. From the station it is a short walk to the main entrance to the archaeological site in Piazza Porta Marina. The ruins are open daily from 8.30 to 19.30 during the summer and from 8.30 to 17.00 between November and April.

Hotels in Pompei by Booking.com

The ruins of the Villa Oplontis, part of the city
destroyed by the 1906 Vesuvius eruption

Travel tip:

Torre Annunziata, which escaped the worst of the 1906 eruption, was destroyed in the eruption of 79AD, when it was known as Oplonti. The present-day city was rebuilt over the ruins. Its name derives from a watch tower - torre - built to warn people of imminent Saracen raids and a chapel consecrated to the Annunziata (Virgin Mary). It became a centre for pasta production in the early 19th century. The Villa Poppaea, also known as Villa Oplontis, believed to be owned by Nero, was discovered about ten metres below ground level just outside the town and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Torre Annunziata hotels by Booking.com

Also on this day:

1763: The birth of musician Domenico Dragonetti

1794: The birth of operatic tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini

1973: The birth of footballer Marco Delvecchio

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The L’Aquila Earthquake

Shock measuring 6.3 magnitude killed more than 300

Scenes of devastation confronted
rescue workers after the quake

The central Italy region of Abruzzo suffered a major disaster on this day in 2009 when an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 caused extensive damage and considerable loss of life in the city of L’Aquila and surrounding villages.

The main shock struck at 3.32am, when many of the victims would have been asleep, although there had been two smaller tremors the day before in an area with a long history of seismic turbulence, giving rise to speculation that a major quake was imminent.

The epicentre was only a little outside L’Aquila, a city with a population of about 70,000, damaging up to 11,000 buildings in the 13th century city.  A total of 309 people lost their lives and such was the scale of devastation that up to 65,000 people were left homeless in the city and neighbouring villages.

It was the deadliest earthquake to hit Italy since the Irpinia quake in Campania killed almost 2,500 people in 1980.

The dead in L’Aquila, a university city, included 55 students killed when their halls of residence collapsed.  The 309 victims were of 11 different nationalities, including Italians.  The main shock was felt 92 km (57 miles) away in the Italian capital, Rome.

Many of L'Aquila's medieval buildings were badly damaged, including the Basilica of Saint Bernardino of Siena, the city’s largest Renaissance church, and the Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio, while the dome of the 18th-century church of Anime Sante in Piazza Duomo collapsed. Porta Napoli, the oldest gate to the city, was completely destroyed.

A wrecked local government building
near the centre of L'Aquila

The collapse of the cupola of the 18th-century Baroque church of St Augustine - previously destroyed in a 1703 earthquake - damaged L'Aquila's state archives. 

But it was not only the city’s historical centre that suffered. Many of L'Aquila's modern buildings - even those thought to be earthquake-proof - were not able to withstand the shaking, including a dormitory at the University of L'Aquila that collapsed, and a new wing of the city’s main hospital, built only nine years earlier.  Shoddy construction was blamed, leaving the city much more vulnerable than it should have been, in the opinion of some experts.

Yet those held to account in the inquiries that followed were not building contractors but six scientists and a government official - members of a government commission for risk assessment - who were placed on trial for manslaughter on the grounds that they had not properly communicated the increased risk following the smaller tremors that preceded the 6 April quake. 

In October 2012,  a court found that the seven individuals were indeed guilty of manslaughter and each was handed a six-year prison sentence, although those convictions were overturned on appeal two years later.

The church of Anime Sante, the dome of which
collapsed, undergoing reconstruction in 2011

Of the vast number of residents left homeless, some 40,000 people were accommodated in tented camps and a further 10,000 were housed in hotels on the coast. 

Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi pledged to rehouse all of the homeless and provide ample funds to rebuild the city, yet reconstruction work was slow, mired in political wrangling, bureaucracy and corruption.  The tented camps remained in place for far longer than planned and even 10 years on, some 2,000 families were still living in prefabricated, temporary accommodation.

Many of the damaged houses in the historic centre of the city are still unrepaired yet some residents moved back into them anyway. Parts of the centre are beginning to look as they did before the quake, after meticulously reconstruction of many historic buildings, although others remain clad in scaffolding and some areas still resemble buildings sites, with cranes towering above the rooftops. 

The Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio, 
with its distinctive pink and white facade

Travel tip:

The capital of the Abruzzo region, L’Aquila was built in the 13th century on a hill within the valley of the Aterno river. Its construction was started by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, and completed by his son, Conrad IV of Germany. It was destroyed by Conrad’s brother, Manfred in 1259, but rebuilt by Charles I of Anjou, who surrounded it with walls.  Many of the buildings that attracted visitors to the city before 2009 have been restored, including the 12th century Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio, with its distinctive exterior of alternating pink and white stone blocks, and the 15th century Basilica of San Bernardino, which reopened in 2015 after six years of restoration work that cost around €40 million.

L'Aquila's elegant Piazza del Duomo, the heart
of the city, as it looked in 2007

Travel tip:

Apart from its religious buildings, L’Aquila is attractive for its maze of narrow streets, lined with Baroque and Renaissance buildings, and its elegant squares. As home to the University of L'Aquila, it has a lively atmosphere and many cultural attractions, including a symphony orchestra, a fine-arts academy, a state conservatory, a film institute and a repertory theatre. Situated in a valley in the Apennines in the shadow of the Gran Sasso massif, it is also close to a number of ski resorts. 

Also on this day:

1483: The birth of painter and architect Raphael

1901: The birth of social activist Pier Giorgio Frassati

1926: The birth of tenor and actor Sergio Franchi

1957: The birth of race-walking twins Maurizio and Giorgio Damilano

(Picture credits: rescuers by University College London; local government office by TheWiz83; church of Anime Sante and Piazza del Duomo by RaeBo; Basilica by Stemonitis; all via Wikimedia Commons)

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Etna’s biggest eruption

Sicily volcano spewed lava for four months

Eruptions are a regular occurrence on the Mount Etna
volcano - this spectacular shot was taken in January this year

The largest eruption of the Mount Etna volcano in recorded history began on this day in 1669.

After several days of seismic activity in the area, a fissure measuring two metres wide and about 9km (5.6 miles) long opened up on the southeastern flank of the Sicilian mountain in the early hours of 11 March.

The lava that was spewed out of the enormous gash continued to flow for four months until the eruption was declared to be over on 16 July, a duration of 122 days.

Although stories of 20,000 deaths as a result of the eruption have been dismissed as myth, with no recorded evidence of any casualties, an estimated 15 towns and villages were destroyed as well as hundreds of buildings in the city of Catania, and some 27,000 people are thought to have been made homeless.

Mount Etna is situated in the northeastern vertex of the triangular island of Sicily. The most active volcano in Europe, it looms over the coastal city of Catania, which has a population within its metropolitan area of more than 1.1 million.  It has a long history of eruptions, first documented in 396BC, when it reportedly thwarted an advance on Syracuse by the Carthanaginians. 

Etna looms large over the port city of Catania,
with the outskirts just 15km from the summit

The 1669 eruption began after a period of intense seismic activity, with accounts of steam and gas rising from the summit to greater heights than normal. A number of earthquakes took place on the evening of 10 March before the first of several fissures in the mountainside appeared shortly after midnight. More opened up in the course of the next day.

The wide stream of molten lava made for a spectacular sight after nightfall but it destroyed every settlement in its path, while other buildings collapsed under the weight of boulders and ash.  Villages up to 5km (3.1 miles) away were covered by up to 12cm (4.7ins) of ash and ash deposits were recorded in Calabria on the Italian mainland, and even as far away as Greece.

Catania itself began to come under threat just over a week after the first rupture appeared on the southeastern flank but volcanologists believe the progress of the lava slowed when it reached a lake and consequently did not reach the walls of the city until around 16 April, having travelled about 15km (9.3 miles).

Some accounts have it that Catania was destroyed but it is thought now that, while many buildings near the boundary were severely damaged, most of the city was left intact.  Although the walls were eventually breached by the lava, it took a further 15 days for that to happen, and the barrier they presented was enough to divert the main flow towards the Ionian Sea.  

The 1669 eruption is captured in art by Giacinto
Platania in a fresco in Catania's duomo

The evacuation of the city was considered, but thanks to barriers being constructed within the walls from the remains of buildings that had been destroyed, the lava advanced only about another 200m.

Where Catania did suffer was from an influx of homeless refugees, up to 20,000 in number, swarming in from settlements razed to the ground by the lava, whose presence led to a breakdown of law and order and caused the artisan classes and the aristocracy to flee.

It is thought that the confusion over the extent of damage and casualties may be because Catania was hit by a further natural catastrophe only 24 years later when an earthquake and tsunami killed up to 60,000 Sicilians, including a third of the population of Catania.

In fact, only 77 deaths have been recorded in Etna’s entire known history, largely because its activity is generally well anticipated and its lava eruptions slow enough to allow residents to escape to safety.

Etna's eruptions attract thousands of visitors for
their spectacular nighttime views

Travel tip:

Mount Etna’s regular eruptions make for spectacular sights, particularly after night has fallen, while the mountain dominates the region even during its periods of relative quiet.  It has a base diameter of 40km (25 miles) and is more than 3,330m (10,825ft) tall, although its height varies depending on activity.  Despite its high level of activity, tourist excursions to see the craters and to appreciate the diversity of flora and fauna at the lower levels are very popular. Visitors must be mindful that temperatures at elevated levels are much colder than at sea level even in the height of summer. Indeed, during the winter months, a number of the mountainside villages become ski resorts.

Catania's beautiful Basilica
della Collegiata

Travel tip:

The city of Catania, which is located on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, is one of the ten biggest cities in Italy, and the seventh largest metropolitan area in the country, with a population including the environs of 1.12 million. Twice destroyed by earthquakes, in 1169 and 1693, it can be compared in some respects with Naples, which sits in the shadow of Vesuvius, in that it lives with the constant threat of a natural catastrophe.  As such it has always been a city for living life to the full. In the Renaissance, it was one of Italy's most important cultural, artistic and political centres and enjoys a rich cultural legacy today, with numerous museums and churches, theatres and parks and many restaurants.  It is also notable for many fine examples of the Sicilian Baroque style of architecture, including the beautiful Basilica della Collegiata, with its six stone columns and the concave curve of its façade.

Catania hotels by Booking.com

Also on this day:

1544: The birth of poet Torquato Tasso

1847: The birth of politician Sidney Sonnino

1851: The opera Rigoletto premieres in Venice

1924: The birth of psychiatrist Franco Basaglia

(Picture credits: Etna looming over Catania by notiziecatania from Pixabay; Basilica della Collegiata by Luca Aless via Wikimedia Commons)

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The Balvano Disaster

Italy’s worst but little known train tragedy

One of several graphic images from the Balvano Disaster
shows the bodies of victims laid out on the station platform

The Italian railway network suffered its worst accident on this day in 1944 when more than 600 passengers died from carbon monoxide poisoning after a train stopped in a tunnel just outside the small town of Balvano, on the border of Basilicata and Campania about 90km (56 miles) east of Salerno.

Yet, despite the death toll being perhaps nine times that of the country’s worst peacetime rail disaster, few Italians were aware that it had happened until author and historian Gianluca Barneschi wrote a book about it in 2014.

Because the tragedy took place during the final stages of the Second World War, when much of southern Italy was a battleground between German and Allied forces, it resonated as a news story for only a short time, the victims essentially added to Italy’s overall count of civilian casualties during the conflict, which is put at more than 150,000.

However, there was no military involvement in the disaster, which was purely an accident, albeit one that was in part caused by the circumstances of the time.

Bodies were loaded on to trucks and taken
away to be buried in mass graves

Barneschi discovered details in classified documents at Britain’s National Archives office in Kew, London, and the story was picked up by an Italian television documentary maker.  Witnesses and survivors helped put together an account of what happened.

Although the train, which originated in Naples, consisted only of goods wagons, it was packed with civilians travelling to the countryside in search of food, with many in the heavily bombed urban areas around Naples almost at the point of starving because of shortages.

Official reports classed these passengers as stowaways, although some accounts suggest that it was so common at the time for civilians to board freight trains in large numbers that there was a black market in unofficial tickets, and that most would have paid a fare.

The train left Naples on the afternoon of 2 March. It travelled at a low speed and made frequent stops as the line followed the coastline of the Bay of Naples, a heavily populated area, passing through Ercolano, Torre del Greco and Torre Annunziata before going inland through Pompei, Nocera Inferiore and the historic town of Cava de’ Terreni, rejoining the coast near Salerno, en route to the city of Potenza in Basilicata.

Until Salerno, the train had been pulled by an electric locomotive, but at that point the electrified line ran out. This meant that the remaining 100km or so of the journey, through increasingly mountainous terrain and frequent tunnels, would have to be completed under steam power.  

Upon leaving Balvano-Ricigliano, trains go straight into a
tunnel, although the disaster occurred in another tunnel

Running coal-fired steam trains through poorly ventilated tunnels was inherently risky at the best of times and the weight of the train required two steam locomotives, producing double the volume of smoke. All was well until the train left the station at the Balvano-Ricigliano station, situated in a steep-sided gorge below Balvano, at about 12.50am on 3 March.  

Entering the Delle Armi tunnel, which is almost 2km long and has a gradient of 1.3%, the train’s wheels began to slip on rails wet from humidity and stalled.  By the time it halted, about 800km into the tunnel, all but the last two wagons were in the tunnel.

Attempting to restart the train inside the tunnel would have been hazardous in any circumstances because of the amount of smoke generated but the problems for the crew were compounded by the fact that, because of shortages, they were reliant on a low-grade coal substitute that produced less power, but more carbon monoxide.

Bodies of the victims were laid to rest in the
local cemetery of Balvano

In addition, there was no communication between the crews of the two locomotives, which meant that as the front locomotive tried to reverse, the second was still attempting to move forward. At the rear, meanwhile, the brakeman in the final wagon, fearing that the train was sliding backwards out of control, applied the brake. The result was that, as the air in the tunnel became more and more toxic and the train failed to move, the crew members lost consciousness. Most of the passengers were asleep and simply never woke up; others who had tried to escape passed out at trackside in the tunnel.

The brakeman was one of only two crew to survive. He eventually walked back the 1.8km to the station, where the alarm was finally raised at 5.10am. By the time rescuers arrived, it was too late for many of the victims to be saved.

Although the tragedy was reported in Italian newspapers it was soon overtaken by other news.  Barneschi believes that the Allies were keen that the event did not receive much attention anyway, fearful that stories of a liberated but starving local population would not reflect well on them.  The Italians, meanwhile, embarrassed that their freight trains were carrying huge numbers of illegal passengers, may have similarly been happy for the incident to be forgotten.

There was an inquiry but no authority or individual was held responsible and no prosecutions resulted.  Of the victims, only the railway employees were given proper funerals. The passengers were buried in four mass graves at the cemetery in Balvano, with no religious ceremony.

The exact death toll has never been established.  The official tally, recorded in the minutes of the inquiry, was put at 517; Barneschi’s research, however, found that when the recovered bodies were laid out on the station platform at Bavano-Ricigliano, they numbered 626.

Salerno in Campania has a pleasant waterfront yet
is often overlooked by visitors to the area

Travel tip:

Salerno, situated some 55km (34 miles) south of Naples with a population of about 133,000, is a city with a reputation as an industrial port and is often overlooked by visitors to Campania, who tend to flock to Naples, Sorrento, the Amalfi coast and the Cilento. Yet it has an attractive waterfront and a quaint old town, at the heart of which is the Duomo, originally built in the 11th century, which houses in its crypt is the tomb of one of the twelve apostles of Christ, Saint Matthew the Evangelist. It is also a good base for excursions both to the Amalfi coast, just a few kilometres to the north, and the Cilento, which can be found at the southern end of the Gulf of Salerno. Hotels are also cheaper than at the more fashionable resorts.

Some of the ancient cave-dwellings for which the
city of Matera has become famous 

Travel tip:

Although Basilicata, of which the city of Potenza is the regional capital, is not among Italy’s major tourist attractions, it has some dramatic scenery and a couple of gems in Matera and Maratea. Declared a European Capital of Culture in 2019, the city of Matera is famous for an area called the Sassi di Matera, made up of former cave-dwellings carved into an ancient river canyon. The area became associated with extreme poverty in the last century and was evacuated in 1952, lying abandoned until the 1980s, when a gradual process of regeneration began. Now, the area contains restaurants, hotels and museums and is an increasingly popular destination for visitors.  Basilicata has two coastlines, one on the Ionian Sea, in the ‘arch’, so to speak, between the heel and toe of the Italian peninsula, the other on the Tyrrhenian Sea, south of the Cilento area of Campania, which is where visitors will find Maratea, a town built on a wooded hillside presiding over around 32km (20 miles) of rocky coastline and more than 20 beaches. 

Also on this day:

1455: The birth of Borgia ally Cardinal Ascanio Sforza

1585: The inauguration of Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico

1768: The birth of composer Nicola Porpora

1882: The birth of fraudster Charles Ponzi

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1783 Calabria Earthquakes

Before photography was possible, copper plate engravings
served to record major events, including the 1783 earthquakes

Series of powerful tremors killed at least 35,000

The Calabrian peninsula of southwest Italy was waking up to the unfolding horror of a sequence of five deadly earthquakes on this day in 1783.

A major tremor destroyed the town of Oppido Mamertina in what is now the province of Reggio Calabria on 5 February, killing almost 1,200 residents, followed by another just after midnight on 6 February, setting off a tsunami that claimed still more lives.

The effects of the first quake  - which has been classified at an estimated 7.0 on the Richter magnitude scale - were felt over a much wider area, however, with countless land and rockslides.  The whole of the island of Sicily is said to have shaken.

In total, it is thought some 180 villages were effectively destroyed, with far more buildings reduced to rubble than remained standing. The city of Messina, on the northeast tip of Sicily, was seriously hit and many casualties were reported there also.

The city’s medieval Duomo was badly damaged, while a tsunami caused the walls of the harbour to collapse.

Another engraving of the late 18th century depicts the
turbulence in the Strait of Messina caused by the quakes

This first shock was thought to have claimed in the region of 25,000 lives across the large area affected as buildings ill-equipped to withstand such violent shaking, strong enough to knock people off their feet, simply collapsed.

Only a few hours later, just after midnight on 6 February a second major tremor occurred closer to Messina, this time put at a magnitude of 6.2. This caused a substantial rockslide into the sea near the coastal town of Scilla on the Italian mainland, which in turn set off a tsunami.  Many residents in Scilla, fearful of their homes collapsing after the 5 February quake, had taken refuge on the beach only to be swept away by the giant wave. It is reckoned around 1,500 died in Scilla.

Further up the peninsula, in the area of the Serre Mountains, about 40km (25 miles) from the first quake, a third one took place, more powerful than the second at 6.6 magnitude, at approximately 1.10pm on 7 February, flattening a string of villages between the towns of Acquaro and Soriano Calabro. Again, there were hundreds of casualties.

A period of less violent shocks followed until, on 1 March, another significant quake, put at magnitude 5.9, struck near the town of Filadelfia, about 30km (19 miles) south of Lamezia Terme. Although it took place some 100km (62 miles) northwest of Scilla and the seat of the first tremors, it was later determined to have been part of the same seismic sequence.

This engraving shows the tsunami crashing into the
fishing village of Scilla, with boats capsizing

Damage and casualties this time were light, but that could not be said of the fifth major event, in the space of just over seven weeks, that struck on 28 March, just a few kilometres from Filadelfia, between the towns of Girifalco and Borgia. This tremor has been recorded at 7.0 magnitude, just as powerful as the first, with many villages destroyed and a further large number of residents killed.

The total number of deaths resulting from the series of earthquakes is put at 35,000 at least, although some estimates point to a figure nearer 50,000. Either way, it is one of the four deadliest seismic events in Italian history in which estimates of casualty numbers are available.

Modern science knows that the cause of earthquakes and other seismic activity in Sicily and southern Italy is caused by the collision of the African and Eurasian plates - two of the seven largest tectonic plates that make up the surface of the earth.

In the 18th century, however, there were different explanations, including one theory that there were ‘fire channels’ inside the earth, of which volcanoes were the manifestation on the surface, and that chemical reactions between gas, water and metal elements in subterranean voids were the cause of earthquakes and eruptions.

This seemed to be supported by another phenomenon that occurred at around the same time in the form of a sulfuric fog that covered much of Europe in the summer of 1783, which scientists thought was due to gas released by the Calabrian quakes although contemporary studies suggest the two things were not connected.

It is thought, instead, that the fog was the result of sulfuric gases released by a volcanic eruption in Iceland of which mainland Europeans had no knowledge.

The ancient fishing village of Chianalea sits on the water's
edge in the shadow of the Castello Ruffo

Travel tip:

The resort town of Scilla on the north-facing Calabrian coast, situated about 23km (14 miles) north of the city of Reggio Calabria, grew up around a picturesque fishing village sheltered by cliffs and a rocky spur, atop which sits the Castello Ruffo, originally a sixth-century fortification but which has been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times.  Beneath is the sandy beach of Marina Grande, now lined with hotels. The main part of the expanded town sits above the cliffs on a plateau. On the other side of the promontory is the less developed village of Chianalea, where houses cling to the water’s edge along a single, cobbled thoroughfare.

Messina's cathedral and bell tower have had to be
rebuilt on several occasions due to disasters and war

Travel tip:

Messina, the Sicilian city separated from mainland Italy by the Strait of Messina, is the third largest city on the island and home to a large Greek-speaking community. The 12th century Duomo - the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta - has a bell tower which houses one of the largest astronomical clocks in the world, built in 1933. Originally built by the Normans, the cathedral, which still contains the remains of King Conrad, ruler of Germany and Sicily in the 13th century, suffered much damage in 1783 and then had to be almost entirely rebuilt following the massive earthquake that struck in 1908, and again in 1943, after a fire triggered by Allied bombings.

More reading:

How Italy's worst earthquake may have killed 200,000

The earthquake in Sicily that led to an architectural rebirth

The Naples earthquake of 1626

Also on this day:

1453: The birth of poet Girolamo Benivieni

1577: The birth of Beatrice Cenci, Roman heroine

1788: The birth of poet Ugo Foscolo

1908: The birth of politician Amintore Fanfani 


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The Moby Prince disaster

Tragic toll of collision between ferry and tanker

The charred wreck of the Moby Prince pictured
in the days after the tragedy that claimed 140 lives

The worst maritime catastrophe to occur in Italian waters in peacetime took place on this day in 1991 when a car ferry collided with an oil tanker near the harbour entrance at Livorno on the coast of Tuscany.

The collision sparked a fire that claimed the lives of 140 passengers and crew and left only one survivor.

The vessels involved were the MV Moby Prince, a car ferry en route from Livorno to Olbia, the coastal city in north-east Sardinia, and the 330-metres long oil tanker, Agip Abruzzo.

The ferry departed Livorno shortly after 22.00 for a journey scheduled to last eight and a half hours but had been under way for only a few minutes when it struck the Agip Abruzzo, which was at anchor near the harbour mouth.

The ferry’s prow sliced into one of the Agip Abruzzo's tanks, which contained 2,700 tonnes of crude oil.  The impact caused some oil to spill into the sea and a large amount to be sprayed over the ferry.  A fire broke out, which set light to the oil both on the surface of the water and on the ferry itself.  Within moments, the Moby Prince was engulfed in flames.

Although the loss of life was so tragically large the toll might have been much worse.  The Moby Prince had the capacity for 850 night-time passengers but in the event was carrying only 75 passengers in addition to the crew of 65.

Firefighters attend the Agip Abruzzo, with the enormous
gash in its side caused by the collision clearly visible

However, the outcome could have been much better had the response of rescuers not been badly hampered by confusion and miscommunication.

It emerged afterwards that many of the passengers escaped the initial fireball because crew members, in accordance with emergency procedures, had taken them to an area of the vessel protected by fireproof doors and walls, where they were to await rescue.

However, because of misunderstandings about what had happened rescuers never reached these passengers within the window for possible evacuation. Post mortem examinations concluded that the cause of death in their case was through the effect of toxic fumes and carbon monoxide rather than the fire itself, although the duration and intensity of the blaze made it unlikely rescue boats could have got close enough to take them off.

The 28 crew members of the Agip Abruzzo escaped in a lifeboat before being transferred to a rescue tug along with the one survivor from the Moby Prince, Alessio Bertrand, a 24-year-old crew member from Naples who was on his first voyage. Bertrand managed to cling to a rail on the edge of the vessel in spot that remained away from the flames long enough for him to be spotted.

The cause of the disaster was never fully explained.  The Agip Abruzzo was anchored outside the main harbour in line with accepted practice because it was carrying dangerous cargo and the Moby Prince was following its correct path out of the harbour.

A subsequent inquiry found numerous contributing factors, including the possibility of localised fog.

The plaque in Livorno bearing the names
of all 140 victims of the disaster

It was also suggested that while the oil tanker’s mayday call was picked up and acted upon quickly, the distress calls from the Moby Prince were missed because the radio operator was using a portable transmitter with a weak signal rather than the vessel’s fixed radio equipment, although it could not be established why he was not at his post.

As a result, it was some time before rescuers realised that there was a second ship involved other than a small refuelling boat said to have been servicing the Agip Abruzzo.

Criminal charges were subsequently brought against a number of crew members from the tanker, officials from the port and the owner of the ferry company, but most were dropped and those individuals who appeared in court were ultimately absolved of blame.

Travel tip:

The victims of the Moby Prince tragedy are commemorated with a memorial plaque in the Porto Mediceo area of the harbour at Livorno. Porto Mediceo was originally commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici and redeveloped in the mid-19^th century under the last of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, Leopold II.

Livorno's elegant seafront promenade, Terrazza Mascagni

Travel tip:

Livorno is the second largest city in Tuscany after Florence, with a population of almost 160,000. Although it is a large commercial port with much related industry, it has many attractions, including an elegant sea front – the Terrazza Mascagni - an historic centre – the Venetian quarter – with canals, and a tradition of serving excellent seafood.

Check TripAdvisor to find a Livorno hotel

More reading:

How the Vajont Dam Disaster claimed up to 2,500 victims

Italy's worst earthquake devastates Messina and Reggio Calabria

The last eruption of Vesuvius

Also on this day:

1926: The airship expedition from Rome to the North Pole

(Picture credits: plaque to victims by Piergiuliano Chesi; Terrazza Mascagni by Luca Aless; via Wikimedia Commons)

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Italy's worst earthquake

Catastrophic tremor of 1908 may have killed up to 200,000

A devastated street in Messina with the remains of the Chiesa
delle Anime del Purgatorio in the distance

The most destructive earthquake ever to strike Europe brought devastation to the cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria on this day in 1908.

With its epicentre beneath the Strait of Messina, which separates Sicily from the Italian mainland, the quake had a magnitude of 7.1 and caused the ground to shake for between 30 and 40 seconds.

It was enough to cause such catastrophic damage that Messina, on the Sicilian side, and Reggio Calabria, on the mainland side, were almost completely destroyed.

The loss of life was huge because the earthquake happened at 5.21am, when most residents were still in bed.

An unknown number were swept away by the tsunami that struck both cities 10 minutes after the major tremor had stopped, when the sea on both sides of the Strait receded up to 70 metres and then rushed back towards the land, generating three massive waves, each taller than the one that preceded it, up to a height of 12 metres (39 feet).

At least 75,000 people were killed in Messina alone, where 91 per cent of buildings were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair.  The Norman cathedral, which had withstood a series of five quakes in 1783, was reduced this time to a partial shell.

Ruined buildings on the waterfront at Reggio Calabria

The death toll amounted to half the population of the city.  Among the dead were the American consul Arthur S Cheney and his wife, Laura.  The French consul and his children were killed, as was Ethel Ogston, the wife of the British Consul, Alfred, who survived.

Notable Italian casualties included both the chief of police and the attorney general of Messina and the operatic tenor Angelo Gamba, who had been in the city to perform in the Giuseppe Verdi opera, Aida, and perished with his family when his hotel collapsed.

In Reggio Calabria almost the whole of the historic centre was destroyed, wiping out much of the city's Greek heritage.  Initial estimates were that around 25,000 people lost their lives, around a quarter of the population, but many more probably died.

The tsunami destroyed the waterfront in both cities, drowning thousands of residents who had sought refuge close to the beach, away from buildings.

Once calm had returned, there were virtually no doctors or hospital facilities to tend the injured, while the bodies of victims buried beneath the rubble were often not recovered until months later, or in some cases not at all.  The final death toll is unknown, with the estimate of 200,000 based on comparing the numbers of residents recorded in census documents before and after the disaster.

Even based on the more conservative estimates, the loss of life was the largest in a single earthquake in Italian history, eclipsing even the Naples earthquake in 1626, which was said to have killed 70,000 people.

In the aftermath of the 1908 event, Europe witnessed one of the first major international rescue operations as Russia and the United States joined European nations in providing assistance.

All lines of communication from the area were cut off and news of the disaster did not reach the rest of Italy until the end of the day, when an Italian naval vessel docked at Nicotera, 80km up the coast from Reggio Calabria, and the captain sent a message via telegraph lines to Giovanni Giolitti, the Italian prime minister.

Rescuers dig through the rubble in Messina 

The Italian navy and army responded and began searching, treating the injured, providing food and water, and evacuating refugees.  The rescue effort was then joined by a fleet of Russian warships on the morning of December 29 and the following day British ships started arriving from Malta.

French and German ships followed suit. When news of the disaster reached the United States, where many emigrants from southern Italy had already settled, President Roosevelt offered to help and four ships were dispatched immediately to provide humanitarian aid and provisions.

In the meantime, Giolitti imposed martial law, ordering that all looters be shot. King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena arrived two days after the earthquake to assist the victims and survivors, many of whom had to be relocated to other parts of Sicily or Italy, or took the option of starting a new life in America.

Both cities were rebuilt along the lines of modern urban areas, architect Luigi Borzi designing the new Messina, with the reconstruction of Reggio Calabria placed in the hands of the engineer Pietro De Nava, although as late as the 1950s, some families were still living in the wooden barracks that were erected as temporary housing.

Travel tip:

Messina's cathedral, which still contains the remains of King Conrad, ruler of Germany and Sicily in the 13th century, had to be almost entirely rebuilt following the earthquake, and again in 1943, after a fire triggered by Allied bombings. The original Norman structure can be recognised in the apsidal area and the façade has three late Gothic portals, dating back to the early 15th century. The tympanum dates back to 1468.

Hotels in Messina by Expedia

The Palazzo Spinelli is an example of the Liberty style
buildings characteristic of the rebuilt Reggio Calabria

Travel tip:

Reggio Calabria is the oldest city in Calabria, the most important in what became known as Magna Graecia - Great Greece - after settlers began to arrive in the eighth century BC.  Much of its heritage was destroyed in the earthquake and the rebuilt city is notable now for its fine Liberty buildings and its linear plan.  The best of what could be salvaged of the Greek remains can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum of Magna Graecia, housed in Palazzo Piacentini.

Hotels in Reggio Calabria by Hotels.com

More reading:

The devastating Naples earthquake of 1626

How the wrath of Vesuvius wiped Pompei from the map

The Vajont dam - a man-made disaster

Also on this day:

1947: The death of Victor Emmanuel III

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Vajont Dam Disaster

Catastrophic flood may have killed 2,500

The Vajont Dam, pictured before the disaster of 1963, was
considered a triumph of  engineering.

Prone to earthquakes because of its unfortunate geology, Italy has suffered many natural disasters over the centuries, yet the horrific catastrophe that took place on this day 53 years ago in an Alpine valley about 100km north of Venice, killing perhaps as many as 2,500 people, was to a significant extent man-made.

The Vajont Dam Disaster of October 9, 1963 happened when a section of a mountain straddling the border of the Veneto and Fruili-Venezia Giulia regions in the Fruilian Dolomites collapsed in a massive landslide, dumping 260 million cubic metres of forest, earth and rock into a deep, narrow reservoir created to generate hydroelectric power for Italy's industrial northern cities.

The chunk of Monte Toc that came away after days of heavy rain was the size of a small town yet within moments it was moving towards the water at 100km per hour (62mph) and hit the surface of the reservoir in less than a minute.

The effect was almost unimaginable.  Within seconds, 50 million cubic metres of water was displaced, creating a tsunami that rose to 250m high.  The dam held, but the colossal volume of water had nowhere to go but over the top and into the Piave valley below.

Where the village of Longarone had stood, all that
 remained was mud and debris.

The landslide was timed at 10.39pm.  In the valley, dotted with villages, many residents were already in bed, others locking up, some making their way home.  They had no chance of escape.  The only warning was a rumbling in the distance, accompanied by a sudden, strengthening wind, that rapidly turned into a deafening roar.

The force behind the surge of water was such that its initial impact with the valley floor after its 250m descent through the narrow Vajont gorge left a crater 60m (200ft) deep and 80m across.

As the water rushed onwards into the Piave valley, it pushed along a pocket of air generating more energy than was created by the atomic bomb that flattened Hiroshima. It was so powerful that most of the victims were found naked, their clothes ripped off them by the blast.

Within a matter of minutes, the villages of Longarone, Pirago, Rivalta, Villanova and Faè had been wiped from the map and 80 per cent of their inhabitants were dead, accounting for around 2,000 of the fatalities.

Others died in villages further downstream, as well as on the opposite side of the reservoir to the landslide, where another huge wave swept up the hillside.

It is estimated that more than half those killed were never found, their bodies buried too deep to be recovered under the vast mud plain that the water left behind.  Others were carried for miles along the Piave River, some possibly into the Adriatic.

The collapse of the mountain filled in almost
half of the reservoir in minutes

A cemetery exists at Fortogna, which commemor- ates all those known to have died, although the headstones - identical blocks of marble in uniform rows - do not necessarily correspond with the remains buried immediately underneath. In many cases there are no remains at all.  To the dismay of relatives, flowers and personal memorials are not permitted to be left.

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the Italian government and the two authorities involved with the construction of the dam - the Adriatic Energy Corporation (Societa Adriatica di Elettrica) and, at a later stage, the National Entity for Electricity (Ente nazionale per l'energia elettrica) - attributed the catastrophe to natural causes. Journalists who suggested otherwise were accused of "undermining public order".

Later, however, it emerged that many warnings about the instability of the site chosen had been ignored and the project had been allowed to continue despite a number of landslides over a period of four years before the disaster.

A number of engineers eventually went on trial and some were convicted of negligence but the sentences handed out were seen by many as too lenient.  The government was urged to sue the Adriatic Energy Corporation for compensation but in the end decided against it.

Among events held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the disaster in 2013, a stage of the Giro d'Italia cycle race finished in the municipality of Erto e Casso on the northern side of the reservoir, with the next stage starting in Longarone.

Longarone was completely rebuilt as a modern village

Travel tip:

Nowadays, the largely undamaged Vajont Dam - itself a triumph of engineering, at 262m (860ft) the tallest in the world at the time of construction - is open to the public and a small memorial chapel has been built.  The rebuilt village of Longarone contains a memorial church designed by one of Italy's most influential 20th century architects, Giovanni Michelucci.

Travel tip:

The most important city in the upper Piave valley, situated about 30km south of Longarone, is Belluno, a former Alpine Town of the Year, where there has been a settlement of some kind since around 220BC.  Subsequently it passed into the hands of the Romans.  The sarcophagus of Caius Flavius Hosilius and his wife Domitia can be found in the church of Santo Stefano, which was built on the site of a Roman cemetery.

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