3-053-671 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Earthquake near Venice: ruins of the Church of San Pietro di Feretto, [Italy], 1873. 'It does not often happen that the range of Italian earthquakes, having a violent and destructive character, extends northward, of Mount Vesuvius...But the Venetian territory...was severely visited by such disturbance on Sunday week...it was at Feretto, [near] Conegliano, which is a town near the Piave river, two hours' journey by railway from Venice, that the greatest loss of life took place. In the Church of San Pietro di Feretto, at the celebration of early mass that Sunday morning, there was a congregation of 150 people. Three successive shocks of earthquake were felt; at the third shock down fell the roof and one side of the building. Thirty-eight persons were killed and nearly eighty were more or less hurt, scarcely anyone escaping without some injury. The officiating priest had an arm broken, while his assistants were killed. In the course of that day all the bodies were got out the ruins; next day they were buried. Our view of the remains of the building is from a sketch by Mr. S. A. Douglas Volk, of Venice. He found the inside of the church filled with rubbish to the depth of four feet. The timber of the building was rotten and extremely frail'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.