3-070-582 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Earthquake in Ischia: Casamicciola, 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...which has been the chief sufferer from the earthquake...[It] 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 first shock, which continued only fifteen seconds, was by far the most destructive. It occurred at half-past nine in the evening, in beautiful, calm, cloudless weather...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...in searching for persons still alive among the ruins, and providing for their relief'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.