3-070-581 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Earthquake in Ischia: Casamicciola and Mount Epomeo, 1883. 'An earthquake, the most terribly destructive of human life that has occurred in Europe during the past quarter of a century, visited the small island of Ischia, in the Bay of Naples, last Saturday evening. It is estimated that not less than four thousand men, women, and children, including some hundreds of Italian and foreign summer visitors from Rome and Naples, perished within a very few seconds. This was at the seaside town and favourite watering-place of Casamicciola...The chief feature of Ischia is Mount Epomeo, 2782 feet high...Casamicciola, which has been the chief sufferer from the earthquake...was the most attractive place on the island, being surrounded by beautiful scenery, while it possessed numerous salt, soda, carbonic acid, and sulphur springs...between May and September it was a crowded holiday resort...The Italian Minister of Public Works, Signor Genala, set out from Rome instantly when the news arrived there, and directed the needful operations... Military engineers were employed, first in searching for persons still alive among the ruins, and providing for their relief; next in putting up huts to shelter the homeless families'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.