ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 413, 3 November 1930, Page 8

ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE

KILLED AND INJURED ROME, Oct. 3L The earthquake killed 13 and 363 were injured, considerably below th • irst estimates. The casualties would uuuoubtedly have been greater had not the majority of the people left the houses early to work in the .fields. For miles along the coast and inland in the Marche Emilia districts thousands of people slept on the open ground around campfires. Early in the morning streams of lorries brought provisions from Ancona and other centres and camp kitchens were established

At sunrise the church bells rang for Mass and hundreds of peasants filled every church safe enough to enter.

Scnigallia is the episcopal see of the Marochcs, on the coast of the Adriatic, and fifteen miles north of Ancona. It is situated 14ft. above sea leval, and presents a modern appearance, with wide streets.

The ancient Sena Gallica was a city of Umbria. A colony was founded there by the Romans after their victory over the Senomes about 280 B.C. It was destroyed by Pompey in 82 8.C., Ravaged by Alaric, fortified by the Longinus, and again laid waste by the Lombards in the Bth century, and by the Saracens in the 9th. Scnigallia was at length brought so low by the Guelph and Ghibelline wars, and especially by the severities of Guido de Montcfeltro, that it was chosen by Dante as the typical instance of a ruined citv.

In the 15th century it was captured and recaptured again and again by the Malatesta and their opponents. Sigismondo Malatesta, of Rimini, erected strong fortifications round it in .145055. Sixtus IV. assigned the lordship of the town to the Delia Rovere family. After 1631 it formed part of the legation of Urbino.