Flood in Florence in 1966

Square in Florence with indication of the water level (circled in red) during the 1966 flood

The flood in Florence in 1966 was one of the greatest flood disasters in the history of Florence and all of Italy . The height of the flood fell on November 4, 1966 . The mud that was washed up with the Arno River in downtown Florence damaged numerous art treasures, many of which date back to the Renaissance .

history

Via San Remigio:
comparison of the high water marks of 1333 (below) and 1966

Due to its geographical location, Florence has suffered frequent floods throughout its history. The most significant floods are recorded from the years 1333, 1547, 1557 and 1844. The flood of 1966 surpassed all high water marks of the past centuries.

After intense rains in October 1966, precipitation increased from November 2nd and reached its peak in the night of November 3rd to 4th. It is estimated that around 45 to 50 million cubic meters of water spilled over the city at that time. At the same time, floods of the century also occurred in the Eastern Alps .

After the flood, manuscripts from the National Library are washed and dried in the boiler room of the Florence train station .

For a long time there was uncertainty about the number of fatalities because the relevant information was kept under lock and key by the authorities. At the turn of the millennium, however, an urban association chaired by journalist Franco Mariani published a prefecture document stating that a total of 34 people, 17 in the city of Florence and 17 in the surrounding municipalities of the province of Florence , had died in the flood .

The removal of the debris and rubbish contaminated with leaked heating oil required weeks of clean-up work. Numerous volunteers from Italy and abroad called Angeli del Fango (“Angel of the Mud”). In the USA , a "Committee for the Rescue of Italian Art" ( CRIA, Committee for the Rescue of Italian Art ) was founded under the chairmanship of Ted and Jacqueline Kennedy and with the assistance of the well-known art historian Millard Meiss .

Damage

Damaged crucifix from Cimabue

The floods caused countless damage to centuries-old works of art. The main affected were:

• the archives of the Opera del Duomo : 6,000 volumes / documents and 55  illuminated manuscripts were damaged in the archives of the Florence Cathedral
• the Florence National Library (BNCF): one third of the holdings of the Florence National Library, d. H. 1,300,000 documents suffered water damage in the flood, including numerous works from the Magliabechiana and Palatina collections
• around 40% of the documents stored in the State Archives ( Archivio di Stato )
• the Uffizi
• the Art History Institute in Florence
• the crucifix of Cimabue in the Basilica of Santa Croce
• the Mary Magdalene by Donatello

literature

• Cold drop . In Der Spiegel 50/1966 ( online , spiegel.de).

Web links

Commons : Flood in Florence 1966  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The flood 1966 , virtual exhibition of the Florence Art History Institute (from 2006).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ There is a report on this by the contemporary historian Giovanni Villani .
2. ↑ There is a description in Istoria dei suoi tempi by the contemporary historian Giovanni Battista Adriani.
3. ↑ ^{a b} History of the Institute , section 1953–1968 , khi.fi.it;
   Die Flut 1966, online exhibition from October 30, 2006 to March 31, 2007 ( memento from January 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) , press release from the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (pdf, on khi.firenze.it), also mpg.de ( memento from 18 January 2015 in the Internet Archive )