1570 Ferrara earthquake
Encyclopedia
The 1570 Ferrara earthquake was a major earthquake
that struck the Italian
city of Ferrara
on November 16 and 17, 1570. After the initial shocks, an earthquake swarm
continued for four years, with over 2000 aftershocks concentrated from November 1570 to February 1571.
The disaster destroyed half the city, permanently marked many of the buildings left standing, and directly contributed to - but was not the sole cause of - a long term decline of the city lasting until the 19th Century
.
The earthquake caused the first documented episode of soil liquefaction
in the Po Valley
, and one of the oldest occurrences of the event known outside of paleoseismology
. It led to the establishment of an earthquake observatory which published to very high regarded, and the drafting of some of the first-known building designs based on a scientific seismic-resistant approach.
, which is a foreland basin
formed by the downflexing of the crust
by the loading of the Apennine thrust sheets, overlies and mainly conceals the active front of the Northern Apennines fold and thrust belt, across which there is about 1 mm per year of active shortening at present. Information from hydrocarbon exploration demonstrates that the area is underlain by a series of active thrust fault
s and related folds
, some of which have been detected from anomalous drainage patterns. These blind thrust faults are roughly WNW-ESE trending, parallel to the mountain front, and dip
shallowly towards the south-southwest. The 1570 earthquake has been linked to movement on the outermost and northernmost of these thrusts.
side of the Po Valley
, an alluvial plain
geologically quite stable since the Messinian
age (7-5 mya). Small earthquakes are common, albeit not frequent, but rarely lead to considerable damage to the urban cityscape. Ferrara was the location for minor earthquakes in the four centuries before 1570, these events being recorded in the city archives with detailed descriptions of damage to buildings and depositions by witnesses.
At the time of the 1570 event, it was a medium-sized city, with 32,000 inhabitants.
Despite continuous - and often victorious - wars against the age's superpowers, the nearby Venice
and the Papal States
, Ferrara in the XVI century was a thriving city, a major hub for trade, business and liberal arts. World class music and painting schools, linked with Flemish artistic communities, were established in late 15th and early 16th century under the Medici patronage. Musical instrument workshops, and especially the making of lute
s, were a pride of the city and were considered preeminent.
A new part of the city, named Addizione Erculea (Herculean adding) had been built in the previous century: it is commonly considered one of the major examples of urban planning in the Renaissance
, the biggest and most architecturally advanced town expansion project in Europe at the time.
, a beloved ruler and a devoted liberal art patron, but careless and a big spender as an administrator. Alfonso was the main sponsor of many artists including Torquato Tasso
, Giovanni Battista Guarini
, Luzzasco Luzzaschi
and Cesare Cremonini
, confirming the reputation of Ferrara as an haven for artists and freethinkers. The emerging of the city as a cultural powerhouse came at the cost of a sharp increase in tax
es.
The city was a safe refuge for Jews and convert
s from the persistent prosecutions promoted by the Roman Catholic Church
. Despite Alfonso II formal status as a vassal of the Holy Seat, he never took any action against the two thousand Jews living in the city walls, well knowing that the Hebrew community accounted for a strong share of the city cultural and economic success. His disregard of the Holy Seat's orders made him more than one enemy.
Even if he was walking on a thin line, Alfonso managed to avoid the Papacy's many diplomatic and legal challenges to the city independence thanks to cunning politics and a strong friendship with the powerful Charles IX of France
. It is to be remembered that Alfonso II was the son of Renée of France
, member of the House of Valois, declared heretic
and guilty of housing John Calvin
himself under the eyes of the Catholics.
Alfonso was not new to compromises: to smooth his frequent brushes with the Pope, he was usually attended masses
and acting as a good catholic in public, receiving communion
, giving substantial sums to charity
, arranging religious parades for saints and building convents.
Both the high taxation, and the soft stance with the Jews ultimately gained him hostility in the most die-hard catholic part of the population, which supported an acquisition of the city and its lands by the Holy Seat. Those rebel fringes were instrumental in the political struggle following the disaster.
set free by cracks in the earth crust. The earthquake struck at dawn: three strong shocks hit the city in the first day; one - the strongest - the day after. The first strong shock struck at 9.30 (local time) November 16, 1570, its epicenter just a few kilometers under the city centre.
Six hundred pieces of stone masonry (mostly battlements, balconies and chimneys) are reported to have fallen, further damaging the flimsy stone and hay
roofs. The following day the ground trembled again many times. At 8 p.m. a new powerful shock caused severe damage to walls and caused some buildings to sustain structural damage. Just four hours later, a new tremor caused new cracks and some collapse. At 3 a.m. on November 17 the ground shook harder then ever: many buildings, damaged by the previous shocks, gave way and caved in.
Many churches' facades, often built as self-standing walls raising well over the effective architecture, collapsed, including at the Duomo
.
Forty percent of the city buildings were damaged, including almost every public building. Some of them collapsed, and many churches sustained critical damage to pillars and main walls. Observers reported that the shallow bowl-shaped valley where Ferrara lies seemed to rise into a kid of hump, before coming back to its original profile. Damages to the city were assessed in over 300.000 scudi
, a huge sum at the time. The event was a surprise to many scholars, since according to the then mainstream theory of natural philosophy
, earthquakes were not meant to strike in winter or on flat land.
Minor earthquakes had struck Ferrara in the past (events were recorded in 1222, 1504, 1511 and 1561, some of them causing little damage, and a stronger event in 1346). The exceptional length of the seismic swarm, unprecedented at the time in Ferrara, led some to believe it was a supernatural phenomenon.
The earthquake's intensity has been assessed as VIII on the Mercalli intensity scale
: only the 1346 event was similar in intensity, though minor urbanization led to less evident damages (but more victims), the other have been all marked as class VII or VI. Other seismic events would hit the city in 1695, 1787 (three shocks in ten days) and 1796.
, seat of the Duke, received major damages and became unfit for use. The Palazzo della Ragione (town hall) partially collapsed, as did the enclosure walls of both Loggia dei Banchieri and Loggia dei Callegari, in front of the Dome. Palazzo Vescovile (the Bishop's palace) was destroyed, and had to be rebuilt. Minor damage was inflicted on the Cardinal Palace, Palazzo del Paradiso, Palazzo Tassoni and Duke Alfonso personal palace.
's. The Santa Maria degli Angeli church, still under constructions, was so severely damaged that further work was abandoned. Other than the facade, the Duomo lost the Corpus Domini chapel and part of a side wing: the heavy iron chain above the main altar fell to the ground, along with the columns' fine marble capitals
. San Paolo church had to be rebuilt from scratch.
s, a common kind of architecture in the Italian city skyline in the renaissance, were damaged. The Castle's bell tower
collapsed to the ground, as did the top portion of the other three major towers of the town: Palazzo della Ragione's, the Porta S. Pietro donjon and Castel Tealdo tower. The Steeple
s of the Duomo, of S.Silvestro, S.Agostino, S.Giorgio and S.Bartolo churches were severely damaged.
Just one month after the earthquake, on December 15, 1570 a new powerful shock hit the city: this time the battered Palazzo Tassoni, S.Andrea church and S.Agostino church were not spared.
On the following January 12, 1571 a new shock damaged Palazzo Montecuccoli.
Reliable sources, such as historian Cesare Nubilonio, estimate 40 victims, while Azariah dei Rossi
and Giovanni Battista Guarini
both place the estimate at 70. Other sources vary from 9 dead to over 100, with some other occurrences of estimates of the order of two hundred or five hundred, usually taken as unreliable. Florence's ambassador Canigiani is known to have written home about 130 to 150 victims.
The palaces of the notables and courtesans were damaged as well as the poorest mansions, and the whole city population had to seek shelter together in tents and refuges, despite their status or wealth. Contemporary account estimate eleven thousand people left the city.
The townspeople remained refugees for the following two years, due to the aftershocks. The resulting situation, in which societal rules were upset or fell in disuse, was perceived as awkward and unnatural by both peasants and well-to-do, leading to common psychological issues amongst the population. Along with the fear of aftershocks, people developed a sense of impending doom, precariousness and a general mistrust in humanity.
and was seen as demeaning by other rulers, but ultimately it proved to be a wise choice and a necessity in view of the duration of the aftershocks.
Ferrara's fate appeared sealed to the ambassadors visiting the refugee Duke: in correspondence between the embassies and the nobles, the region is sometimes called "di Val di Po dov'era Ferrara" (Po Valley, where Ferrara once stood). Florence's ambassadors were especially skeptical about the chances of city recovery.
Pope's rebuttal was a blunt political maneuver, meant to undermine Alfonso's authority by exploiting the discontented minorities: it stated that since the city administration tolerated the presence of the assassins of Jesus Christ, then God was justifiably angry toward the whole city. Full blame was to be put on Alfonso's part, not on the Jews, for failing to expel them from the city walls.
Jew city scholar Azariah dei Rossi
wrote a short essay on the earthquake in the following days, named Kol Elohim: in the account, he credited the earthquake to a visit from God himself, suggesting it was a supernatural event but not implying any punishment toward the city or its Jews.
were sent to the town from Bologna
, in order to scare the populace and turn it against Alfonso. The friars took some decomposing corpses from the rubble, and brought them in procession claiming that God was going to sink the city to hell if the people refused to drive Alfonso away.
The macabre show further contributed to the widespread sense of doom and distrust: people living in one of the most free and culturally lively cities of Italy suddenly was cast into a gloomy atmosphere of superstition and religious obscurantism.
He walked in procession through the debris, followed by his most trustworthy men, to show off to the populace his control on the city, its laws and its people.
The Duke made every effort to have the Castello Estense
repaired in record time, to downplay his hardnesses with the other Italian rulers and to begin to restore a sense of normality in the evacuees. Relationships with the Papacy remained strained, but Alfonso always managed to keep the Pope's demands and attacks at bay.
Immediately Duke Alfonso ordered a census of the remaining population, and on August 14 1571 issued a decree ordering the Ferraresi to come back to the city. Return was mandatory for people living in the city for at least 15 years (that is, people with full citizenship rights), under penalty of seizing of their estates. Despite the order, only about two out of three came back to the city: among the people who left the city were many of the wealthiest and a good portion of the court nobles - further diminishing the prestige of Alfonso II.
At first rebuilding works begun on the Duomo and on S.Michele, S.Romano and S.Maria in Vado churches, overseen by Cardinal
Maremonti. According to Guarini, works on S.Rocco, S.Silvestro, S.Stefano, S.Cristoforo, S.Francesco and the rebuilding of S.Paolo begun shortly after, the latter being completed in 1575.
Damage to buildings was so widespread - chronicles reports that all the public building and most of the houses needed work - that the forging of the much needed iron bars caused a shortage of metal in the whole province, depleting stockpiles and requiring massive imports from nearby cities.
, philosophers and many "experts in various accidents" to inquire into the causes of the disaster, appointing as their leader the renowned Neapolitan
architect Pirro Ligorio
(a successor of Michelangelo
as head of the San Pietro in Vaticano workshop), effectively founding the first seismological observatory and think tank on earthquakes in the world.
The study group wrote six treaties in the following year: four of them were published and quickly became regarded as masterpieces among that part of natural philosophy dedicated to the study of earthquakes, their reputation lasting through the following two centuries. The essays were essential in disproving emerging theories that blamed the earthquake on the drainage of the many Duchy's swamps and their reclamation as fertile agricultural lands. One of the leading theories at the time was that earthquakes were caused by subterranean winds, excited by change in temperature. The winds should have escaped through the marshes, but drainage compromised the process so the winds grew in pressure and caused shocks.
while at the same time proving that the Pope's claims were unfounded. He collected a long list of earthquakes of the past, compiling a time-line and showing how they were a common and natural occurrence in many parts of the known world. He kept a diary of the aftershock, writing in abundance of detail about their intensity and the damage they kept doing to the city, dramatically improving knowledge of shocks dynamics and consequences of an earthquake.
Ultimately, Ligorio put the blame for the extensive damage on inappropriate techniques and bad materials used in building the city's edifices. The random mixing of stones, brick and sand in the main walls was strongly criticized, along with the rooftops built to push horizontally on the side walls (instead of providing a vertical load). Approximation in leveling of walls and ceilings led to uneven discharge of forces.
In the last part of his treatise, Rimedi contra terremoti per la sicurezza degli edifici (Remedies against earthquakes for building security), Ligorio presented design plans for a shock-proof building, the first known design with a scientific anti-seismic approach. Many of the empirical findings of Ligorio are consistent with contemporary anti-seismic practices: among them the correct dimensioning of main walls, use of better and stronger bricks as well as elastic structural joints and iron rods.
fleet in the Battle of Lepanto
. While the Duke was away, the Pope executed a thorough purge of the Jews from the Papal States, including Ferrara. The only allowed ghetto
es were established in Rome
and Ancona
. Pope Pius V died the following year.
After the earthquake, many nobles and well-off merchants left the city, managing their business in their country villa
s or moving their houses to nearby towns. Ferrara lost its capital city status and was demoted to a simple border city squeezed between Venice and the Papal States, never fully achieving economic recovery from the disaster. Without the Jews' businesses, crushed by costly reconstruction debts and losing its thriving cultural circle, the city became a minor trade and agricultural hub up until the 19th century
.
In 1598 Alfonso died without legitimate heirs, and the city was formally annexed to the Papal States by means of questionable claims of vacancy. The annexation of Ferrara and Comacchio
was disputed by many contemporaries, including the weak Duke of Modena
Cesare d'Este
who was the direct candidate to the succession, but was ultimately completed.
brace
s and rods placed in the aftermath of the shocks to strengthen the damaged walls are still present, windows closed with stones and concrete to improve the stability of damaged facades are a common occurrence and there are traces of the stubs once sustaining collapsed balconies and porches. Chimneys, decorated battlement
s and terrace
s were damaged or destroyed, and were rebuilt in the following decade in a changed style and materials.
Walls from historical buildings are often uneven and out of angle. This is sometimes said by locals to provoke the special Ferrara feeling to visitors, a veiled sense of dizziness and disorientation.
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
that struck the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
city of Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
on November 16 and 17, 1570. After the initial shocks, an earthquake swarm
Earthquake swarm
Earthquake swarms are events where a local area experiences sequences of many earthquakes striking in a relatively short period of time. The length of time used to define the swarm itself varies, but the United States Geological Survey points out that an event may be on the order of days, weeks, or...
continued for four years, with over 2000 aftershocks concentrated from November 1570 to February 1571.
The disaster destroyed half the city, permanently marked many of the buildings left standing, and directly contributed to - but was not the sole cause of - a long term decline of the city lasting until the 19th Century
19th century
The 19th century was a period in history marked by the collapse of the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Holy Roman and Mughal empires...
.
The earthquake caused the first documented episode of soil liquefaction
Soil liquefaction
Soil liquefaction describes a phenomenon whereby a saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress, usually earthquake shaking or other sudden change in stress condition, causing it to behave like a liquid....
in the Po Valley
Po Valley
The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain is a major geographical feature of Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of 46,000 km² including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po River basin; it runs from the Western Alps to the...
, and one of the oldest occurrences of the event known outside of paleoseismology
Paleoseismology
Paleoseismology looks at geologic sediments and rocks, for signs of ancient earthquakes. It is used to supplement seismic monitoring, for the calculation of seismic hazard...
. It led to the establishment of an earthquake observatory which published to very high regarded, and the drafting of some of the first-known building designs based on a scientific seismic-resistant approach.
Geology
The Po PlainPo Valley
The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain is a major geographical feature of Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of 46,000 km² including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po River basin; it runs from the Western Alps to the...
, which is a foreland basin
Foreland basin
A foreland basin is a depression that develops adjacent and parallel to a mountain belt. Foreland basins form because the immense mass created by crustal thickening associated with the evolution of a mountain belt causes the lithosphere to bend, by a process known as lithospheric flexure...
formed by the downflexing of the crust
Crust (geology)
In geology, the crust is the outermost solid shell of a rocky planet or natural satellite, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle...
by the loading of the Apennine thrust sheets, overlies and mainly conceals the active front of the Northern Apennines fold and thrust belt, across which there is about 1 mm per year of active shortening at present. Information from hydrocarbon exploration demonstrates that the area is underlain by a series of active thrust fault
Thrust fault
A thrust fault is a type of fault, or break in the Earth's crust across which there has been relative movement, in which rocks of lower stratigraphic position are pushed up and over higher strata. They are often recognized because they place older rocks above younger...
s and related folds
Fold (geology)
The term fold is used in geology when one or a stack of originally flat and planar surfaces, such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of permanent deformation. Synsedimentary folds are those due to slumping of sedimentary material before it is lithified. Folds in rocks vary in...
, some of which have been detected from anomalous drainage patterns. These blind thrust faults are roughly WNW-ESE trending, parallel to the mountain front, and dip
Strike and dip
Strike and dip refer to the orientation or attitude of a geologic feature. The strike line of a bed, fault, or other planar feature is a line representing the intersection of that feature with a horizontal plane. On a geologic map, this is represented with a short straight line segment oriented...
shallowly towards the south-southwest. The 1570 earthquake has been linked to movement on the outermost and northernmost of these thrusts.
The city
Ferrara is located on the veneticVeneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
side of the Po Valley
Po Valley
The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain is a major geographical feature of Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of 46,000 km² including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po River basin; it runs from the Western Alps to the...
, an alluvial plain
Alluvial plain
An alluvial plain is a relatively flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms...
geologically quite stable since the Messinian
Messinian
The Messinian is in the geologic timescale the last age or uppermost stage of the Miocene. It spans the time between 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma and 5.332 ± 0.005 Ma...
age (7-5 mya). Small earthquakes are common, albeit not frequent, but rarely lead to considerable damage to the urban cityscape. Ferrara was the location for minor earthquakes in the four centuries before 1570, these events being recorded in the city archives with detailed descriptions of damage to buildings and depositions by witnesses.
At the time of the 1570 event, it was a medium-sized city, with 32,000 inhabitants.
Despite continuous - and often victorious - wars against the age's superpowers, the nearby Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
and the Papal States
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
, Ferrara in the XVI century was a thriving city, a major hub for trade, business and liberal arts. World class music and painting schools, linked with Flemish artistic communities, were established in late 15th and early 16th century under the Medici patronage. Musical instrument workshops, and especially the making of lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
s, were a pride of the city and were considered preeminent.
A new part of the city, named Addizione Erculea (Herculean adding) had been built in the previous century: it is commonly considered one of the major examples of urban planning in the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, the biggest and most architecturally advanced town expansion project in Europe at the time.
Political, economical and religious situation
In 1570 the city was held by Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, vassal of Pope Pius VPope Pius V
Pope Saint Pius V , born Antonio Ghislieri , was Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman liturgy within the Latin Church...
, a beloved ruler and a devoted liberal art patron, but careless and a big spender as an administrator. Alfonso was the main sponsor of many artists including Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...
, Giovanni Battista Guarini
Giovanni Battista Guarini
Giovanni Battista Guarini was an Italian poet, dramatist, and diplomat.- Life :He was born in Ferrara, and spent his early life both in Padua and Ferrara, entering the service of Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, in 1567...
, Luzzasco Luzzaschi
Luzzasco Luzzaschi
Luzzasco Luzzaschi was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was born and died in Ferrara, and despite evidence of travels to Rome it is assumed that Luzzaschi spent the majority of his life in his native city.As a pupil of Cipriano de Rore, Luzzaschi developed...
and Cesare Cremonini
Cesare Cremonini
Cesare Cremonini [IPA: 'tʃεzare kremo'nini] is an Italian singer-songwriter.Cremonini was the leader of Lùnapop, a successful and popular Italian pop band between 1999 and 2002. In 2002 Lùnapop was disbanded. He has since pursued a successful solo career...
, confirming the reputation of Ferrara as an haven for artists and freethinkers. The emerging of the city as a cultural powerhouse came at the cost of a sharp increase in tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
es.
The city was a safe refuge for Jews and convert
Convert
The convert or try, in American football known as "point after", and Canadian football "Point after touchdown", is a one-scrimmage down played immediately after a touchdown during which the scoring team is allowed to attempt to score an extra one point by kicking the ball through the uprights , or...
s from the persistent prosecutions promoted by the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. Despite Alfonso II formal status as a vassal of the Holy Seat, he never took any action against the two thousand Jews living in the city walls, well knowing that the Hebrew community accounted for a strong share of the city cultural and economic success. His disregard of the Holy Seat's orders made him more than one enemy.
Even if he was walking on a thin line, Alfonso managed to avoid the Papacy's many diplomatic and legal challenges to the city independence thanks to cunning politics and a strong friendship with the powerful Charles IX of France
Charles IX of France
Charles IX was King of France, ruling from 1560 until his death. His reign was dominated by the Wars of Religion. He is best known as king at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.-Childhood:...
. It is to be remembered that Alfonso II was the son of Renée of France
Renée of France
Renée de France was the younger daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne, Duchess of Brittany. Her elder sister was Queen Claude of France. She was the Duchess of Ferrara due to her marriage to Ercole II d'Este, grandson of Pope Alexander VI...
, member of the House of Valois, declared heretic
Heretic
A heretic is a person who commits heresy.In literature:* Heretic, an autobiography of Peter Cameron* Heretic , the third volume in The Grail Quest series by Bernard CornwellIn music:...
and guilty of housing John Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
himself under the eyes of the Catholics.
Alfonso was not new to compromises: to smooth his frequent brushes with the Pope, he was usually attended masses
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
and acting as a good catholic in public, receiving communion
Communion (Christian)
The term communion is derived from Latin communio . The corresponding term in Greek is κοινωνία, which is often translated as "fellowship". In Christianity, the basic meaning of the term communion is an especially close relationship of Christians, as individuals or as a Church, with God and with...
, giving substantial sums to charity
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
, arranging religious parades for saints and building convents.
Both the high taxation, and the soft stance with the Jews ultimately gained him hostility in the most die-hard catholic part of the population, which supported an acquisition of the city and its lands by the Holy Seat. Those rebel fringes were instrumental in the political struggle following the disaster.
Precursor events and main shock
Earthquake lights were seen above the city on November 15, 1570, the night before the first quake. Flames were reported to come out from the soil and raise into the air, probably small pockets of natural gasNatural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
set free by cracks in the earth crust. The earthquake struck at dawn: three strong shocks hit the city in the first day; one - the strongest - the day after. The first strong shock struck at 9.30 (local time) November 16, 1570, its epicenter just a few kilometers under the city centre.
Six hundred pieces of stone masonry (mostly battlements, balconies and chimneys) are reported to have fallen, further damaging the flimsy stone and hay
Hay
Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...
roofs. The following day the ground trembled again many times. At 8 p.m. a new powerful shock caused severe damage to walls and caused some buildings to sustain structural damage. Just four hours later, a new tremor caused new cracks and some collapse. At 3 a.m. on November 17 the ground shook harder then ever: many buildings, damaged by the previous shocks, gave way and caved in.
Many churches' facades, often built as self-standing walls raising well over the effective architecture, collapsed, including at the Duomo
Duomo
Duomo is a term for a cathedral church. The formal word for a church that is presently a cathedral is cattedrale; a Duomo may be either a present or a former cathedral . Some, like the Duomo of Monza, have never been cathedrals, although old and important...
.
Forty percent of the city buildings were damaged, including almost every public building. Some of them collapsed, and many churches sustained critical damage to pillars and main walls. Observers reported that the shallow bowl-shaped valley where Ferrara lies seemed to rise into a kid of hump, before coming back to its original profile. Damages to the city were assessed in over 300.000 scudi
Italian scudo
The scudo was the name for a number of coins used in Italy until the 19th century. The name, like that of the French écu and the Spanish and Portuguese escudo, was derived from the Latin scutum . From the 16th century, the name was used in Italy for large silver coins...
, a huge sum at the time. The event was a surprise to many scholars, since according to the then mainstream theory of natural philosophy
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
, earthquakes were not meant to strike in winter or on flat land.
Minor earthquakes had struck Ferrara in the past (events were recorded in 1222, 1504, 1511 and 1561, some of them causing little damage, and a stronger event in 1346). The exceptional length of the seismic swarm, unprecedented at the time in Ferrara, led some to believe it was a supernatural phenomenon.
The earthquake's intensity has been assessed as VIII on the Mercalli intensity scale
Mercalli intensity scale
The Mercalli intensity scale is a seismic scale used for measuring the intensity of an earthquake. It measures the effects of an earthquake, and is distinct from the moment magnitude M_w usually reported for an earthquake , which is a measure of the energy released...
: only the 1346 event was similar in intensity, though minor urbanization led to less evident damages (but more victims), the other have been all marked as class VII or VI. Other seismic events would hit the city in 1695, 1787 (three shocks in ten days) and 1796.
Palaces and public buildings
Castello EstenseCastello Estense
The Castle Estense or Castle of Saint Michele is a moated medieval structure in the center of Ferrara, northern Italy. It is a large block with four corner towers.- History :...
, seat of the Duke, received major damages and became unfit for use. The Palazzo della Ragione (town hall) partially collapsed, as did the enclosure walls of both Loggia dei Banchieri and Loggia dei Callegari, in front of the Dome. Palazzo Vescovile (the Bishop's palace) was destroyed, and had to be rebuilt. Minor damage was inflicted on the Cardinal Palace, Palazzo del Paradiso, Palazzo Tassoni and Duke Alfonso personal palace.
Churches
Damage to churches was widespread. S. Paolo and and S. Giovanni Battista churches collapsed, many paintings with them. Facades of S.Francesco, S.Andrea, S.Maria in Vado, S.Domenico, and Santa Maria della Consolazione churches were severely damaged or destroyed, as was the CharterhouseCharterhouse
A Charterhouse is a Carthusian monastery. The word is derived from Chartreuse, the first monastery of the order having been established in a valley of the Chartreuse Mountains.It can refer to numerous monasteries:It can also refer to:...
's. The Santa Maria degli Angeli church, still under constructions, was so severely damaged that further work was abandoned. Other than the facade, the Duomo lost the Corpus Domini chapel and part of a side wing: the heavy iron chain above the main altar fell to the ground, along with the columns' fine marble capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
. San Paolo church had to be rebuilt from scratch.
Towers
Many towerTower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
s, a common kind of architecture in the Italian city skyline in the renaissance, were damaged. The Castle's bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
collapsed to the ground, as did the top portion of the other three major towers of the town: Palazzo della Ragione's, the Porta S. Pietro donjon and Castel Tealdo tower. The Steeple
Steeple (architecture)
A steeple, in architecture, is a tall tower on a building, often topped by a spire. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religious structure...
s of the Duomo, of S.Silvestro, S.Agostino, S.Giorgio and S.Bartolo churches were severely damaged.
Further shocks
The seismic wave kept going for four years, but the worst was over after about six months.Just one month after the earthquake, on December 15, 1570 a new powerful shock hit the city: this time the battered Palazzo Tassoni, S.Andrea church and S.Agostino church were not spared.
On the following January 12, 1571 a new shock damaged Palazzo Montecuccoli.
Victims
Despite the widespread damage, fatalities were quite limited. The initial shocks alerted the population, and gave them time to evacuate the damaged buildings. The majority of houses were of one or two story height, and received less severe damage than the grander palaces and churches.Reliable sources, such as historian Cesare Nubilonio, estimate 40 victims, while Azariah dei Rossi
Azariah dei Rossi
Azariah ben Moses dei Rossi was an Italian-Jewish physician and scholar. He was born at Mantua in 1513 or 1514; and died in 1578. He was descended from an old Jewish family which, according to a tradition, was brought by Titus from Jerusalem...
and Giovanni Battista Guarini
Giovanni Battista Guarini
Giovanni Battista Guarini was an Italian poet, dramatist, and diplomat.- Life :He was born in Ferrara, and spent his early life both in Padua and Ferrara, entering the service of Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, in 1567...
both place the estimate at 70. Other sources vary from 9 dead to over 100, with some other occurrences of estimates of the order of two hundred or five hundred, usually taken as unreliable. Florence's ambassador Canigiani is known to have written home about 130 to 150 victims.
The poor and the wealthy
People were scared by the disaster and about a third of the populace left the city for good. City jails collapsed and prisoners escaped the rubble, leading to a crime spree in the city and countryside.The palaces of the notables and courtesans were damaged as well as the poorest mansions, and the whole city population had to seek shelter together in tents and refuges, despite their status or wealth. Contemporary account estimate eleven thousand people left the city.
The townspeople remained refugees for the following two years, due to the aftershocks. The resulting situation, in which societal rules were upset or fell in disuse, was perceived as awkward and unnatural by both peasants and well-to-do, leading to common psychological issues amongst the population. Along with the fear of aftershocks, people developed a sense of impending doom, precariousness and a general mistrust in humanity.
The country court
Duke Alfonso II d'Este and his family barely escaped the collapse of a tower of Castello Estense. The lord fled the city by coach, and set up a temporary court in the fields of the San Benedetto garden near the city along with his closest advisor. This unusual improvisation was not well regarded by the PopePope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
and was seen as demeaning by other rulers, but ultimately it proved to be a wise choice and a necessity in view of the duration of the aftershocks.
Ferrara's fate appeared sealed to the ambassadors visiting the refugee Duke: in correspondence between the embassies and the nobles, the region is sometimes called "di Val di Po dov'era Ferrara" (Po Valley, where Ferrara once stood). Florence's ambassadors were especially skeptical about the chances of city recovery.
The Pope's stance
The Duke asked Pope Pius V for help, or at least a public blessing to the city: he receiving nothing but a firm reprimand for not having prosecuted enough the city's Jews, well deserving God's wrath toward the city. Alfonso II's answer was prompt, pointing out the evident natural cause of the disaster and discharging any allegation about blaming the Jews.Pope's rebuttal was a blunt political maneuver, meant to undermine Alfonso's authority by exploiting the discontented minorities: it stated that since the city administration tolerated the presence of the assassins of Jesus Christ, then God was justifiably angry toward the whole city. Full blame was to be put on Alfonso's part, not on the Jews, for failing to expel them from the city walls.
Jew city scholar Azariah dei Rossi
Azariah dei Rossi
Azariah ben Moses dei Rossi was an Italian-Jewish physician and scholar. He was born at Mantua in 1513 or 1514; and died in 1578. He was descended from an old Jewish family which, according to a tradition, was brought by Titus from Jerusalem...
wrote a short essay on the earthquake in the following days, named Kol Elohim: in the account, he credited the earthquake to a visit from God himself, suggesting it was a supernatural event but not implying any punishment toward the city or its Jews.
Scaring the population
Along with the Pope's stern letter, emissaries from the CapuchinsOrder of Friars Minor Capuchin
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an Order of friars in the Catholic Church, among the chief offshoots of the Franciscans. The worldwide head of the Order, called the Minister General, is currently Father Mauro Jöhri.-Origins :...
were sent to the town from Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, in order to scare the populace and turn it against Alfonso. The friars took some decomposing corpses from the rubble, and brought them in procession claiming that God was going to sink the city to hell if the people refused to drive Alfonso away.
The macabre show further contributed to the widespread sense of doom and distrust: people living in one of the most free and culturally lively cities of Italy suddenly was cast into a gloomy atmosphere of superstition and religious obscurantism.
The Duke's reaction
Bothered by the Capuchins' show, annoyed by the Pope's political maneuvers and worried about the loss of hope of the citizens, the Duke decided to display his strength by forcibly expelling the rabble-rousing friars from the city, abandoning any expectation of papal help and unilaterally taking in his hands the control of the city rebuilding.He walked in procession through the debris, followed by his most trustworthy men, to show off to the populace his control on the city, its laws and its people.
The Duke made every effort to have the Castello Estense
Castello Estense
The Castle Estense or Castle of Saint Michele is a moated medieval structure in the center of Ferrara, northern Italy. It is a large block with four corner towers.- History :...
repaired in record time, to downplay his hardnesses with the other Italian rulers and to begin to restore a sense of normality in the evacuees. Relationships with the Papacy remained strained, but Alfonso always managed to keep the Pope's demands and attacks at bay.
Return into the city and rebuilding efforts
After Castello Estense was made safe again, thanks to many iron rods and anchors, in March 1571 the Duke triumphantly relocate back to the city and the return to normality begun to look possible. Minor shocks kept coming, but the city was ready for rebuilding.Immediately Duke Alfonso ordered a census of the remaining population, and on August 14 1571 issued a decree ordering the Ferraresi to come back to the city. Return was mandatory for people living in the city for at least 15 years (that is, people with full citizenship rights), under penalty of seizing of their estates. Despite the order, only about two out of three came back to the city: among the people who left the city were many of the wealthiest and a good portion of the court nobles - further diminishing the prestige of Alfonso II.
At first rebuilding works begun on the Duomo and on S.Michele, S.Romano and S.Maria in Vado churches, overseen by Cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
Maremonti. According to Guarini, works on S.Rocco, S.Silvestro, S.Stefano, S.Cristoforo, S.Francesco and the rebuilding of S.Paolo begun shortly after, the latter being completed in 1575.
Damage to buildings was so widespread - chronicles reports that all the public building and most of the houses needed work - that the forging of the much needed iron bars caused a shortage of metal in the whole province, depleting stockpiles and requiring massive imports from nearby cities.
Founding of the observatory
Alfonso called on his court scholars in physicsPhysics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, philosophers and many "experts in various accidents" to inquire into the causes of the disaster, appointing as their leader the renowned Neapolitan
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
architect Pirro Ligorio
Pirro Ligorio
Pirro Ligorio was an Italian architect, painter, antiquarian and garden designer.-Biography:Ligorio was born in Naples. In 1534 he moved to Rome, where he developed his interest in antiquities, and was named superintendent to the ancient monuments by the Popes Pius IV and Paul IV...
(a successor of Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
as head of the San Pietro in Vaticano workshop), effectively founding the first seismological observatory and think tank on earthquakes in the world.
The study group wrote six treaties in the following year: four of them were published and quickly became regarded as masterpieces among that part of natural philosophy dedicated to the study of earthquakes, their reputation lasting through the following two centuries. The essays were essential in disproving emerging theories that blamed the earthquake on the drainage of the many Duchy's swamps and their reclamation as fertile agricultural lands. One of the leading theories at the time was that earthquakes were caused by subterranean winds, excited by change in temperature. The winds should have escaped through the marshes, but drainage compromised the process so the winds grew in pressure and caused shocks.
Ligorio's work on building safety
Ligorio was a scientist and a devout catholic: he needed to carefully weigh his words to avoid a clash with the CuriaCuria
A curia in early Roman times was a subdivision of the people, i.e. more or less a tribe, and with a metonymy it came to mean also the meeting place where the tribe discussed its affairs...
while at the same time proving that the Pope's claims were unfounded. He collected a long list of earthquakes of the past, compiling a time-line and showing how they were a common and natural occurrence in many parts of the known world. He kept a diary of the aftershock, writing in abundance of detail about their intensity and the damage they kept doing to the city, dramatically improving knowledge of shocks dynamics and consequences of an earthquake.
Ultimately, Ligorio put the blame for the extensive damage on inappropriate techniques and bad materials used in building the city's edifices. The random mixing of stones, brick and sand in the main walls was strongly criticized, along with the rooftops built to push horizontally on the side walls (instead of providing a vertical load). Approximation in leveling of walls and ceilings led to uneven discharge of forces.
In the last part of his treatise, Rimedi contra terremoti per la sicurezza degli edifici (Remedies against earthquakes for building security), Ligorio presented design plans for a shock-proof building, the first known design with a scientific anti-seismic approach. Many of the empirical findings of Ligorio are consistent with contemporary anti-seismic practices: among them the correct dimensioning of main walls, use of better and stronger bricks as well as elastic structural joints and iron rods.
Loss of independence
Late in 1571 Alfonso II was called to fight against the Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
fleet in the Battle of Lepanto
Battle of Lepanto
The Battle of Lepanto normally refers to the 1571 Holy League victory over the Ottoman fleet. There were also three earlier battles fought in the vicinity of Lepanto:*Battle of Naupactus in 429 BC, an Athenian victory during the Peleoponnesian War...
. While the Duke was away, the Pope executed a thorough purge of the Jews from the Papal States, including Ferrara. The only allowed ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
es were established in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Ancona
Ancona
Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region, in central Italy, with a population of 101,909 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region....
. Pope Pius V died the following year.
After the earthquake, many nobles and well-off merchants left the city, managing their business in their country villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
s or moving their houses to nearby towns. Ferrara lost its capital city status and was demoted to a simple border city squeezed between Venice and the Papal States, never fully achieving economic recovery from the disaster. Without the Jews' businesses, crushed by costly reconstruction debts and losing its thriving cultural circle, the city became a minor trade and agricultural hub up until the 19th century
19th century
The 19th century was a period in history marked by the collapse of the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Holy Roman and Mughal empires...
.
In 1598 Alfonso died without legitimate heirs, and the city was formally annexed to the Papal States by means of questionable claims of vacancy. The annexation of Ferrara and Comacchio
Comacchio
Comacchio is a town and comune of Emilia Romagna, Italy, in the province of Ferrara, 48 km from the provincial capital Ferrara.-Geography:...
was disputed by many contemporaries, including the weak Duke of Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
Cesare d'Este
Cesare d'Este
Cesare d'Este was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1597 until his death. During his reign, in 1598, the House of Este lost the Duchy of Ferrara.-Biography:...
who was the direct candidate to the succession, but was ultimately completed.
Permanent damage
The city's architecture still bears many marks from the earthquake. IronIron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
brace
Brace
Brace may refer to:-Medical:* Brace , a device used to restrict or assist body movement* Back brace, a device limiting motion of the spine** Milwaukee brace, a kind of back brace used in the treatment of spinal curvatures...
s and rods placed in the aftermath of the shocks to strengthen the damaged walls are still present, windows closed with stones and concrete to improve the stability of damaged facades are a common occurrence and there are traces of the stubs once sustaining collapsed balconies and porches. Chimneys, decorated battlement
Battlement
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet , in which portions have been cut out at intervals to allow the discharge of arrows or other missiles. These cut-out portions form crenels...
s and terrace
Terrace
A terrace may refer to:*Terrace , a leveled surface*Terrace , a raised flat platform*Terrace , a step-like landform that borders a shoreline or river floodplain...
s were damaged or destroyed, and were rebuilt in the following decade in a changed style and materials.
Walls from historical buildings are often uneven and out of angle. This is sometimes said by locals to provoke the special Ferrara feeling to visitors, a veiled sense of dizziness and disorientation.