Earthquake in Friuli 1348

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The earthquake of 1348 in Friuli and Carinthia was a natural event on January 25, 1348. The epicenter of the earthquake was not in the Villach area, as previously assumed , but in Friuli, a little east of Tolmezzo , Venzone and Gemona and reached an intensity of 8 to 9 on the twelve-part EMS-98 scale . There was severe damage to buildings and general panic among the population. Even if the effects of the earthquake in the Villach area are not likely to have been that severe, there was a landslide of the Dobratsch . This in turn led to a tidal wave and a damming of the Gail , which resulted in numerous floods and further damage.

The main quake started in the middle of the afternoon and probably lasted about a minute. It was noticed all over Northern Italy and in the area of ​​today's Austria, but also in Bavaria, Bohemia, Hungary and today's Slovenia. While today's research localizes the epicenter in Friuli due to great similarities with the 1976 earthquake there , contemporary attention was directed more towards the Villach area, which is why the Great Villach earthquake was mentioned. The good sources for this event - around 200 sources are known - can be traced back to the fact that the quake occurred only a few weeks before the outbreak of the plague in Central Europe and that both events were seen and described in direct connection in contemporary sources.

Fires caused primarily by the quake raged in Villach. The main earthquake also caused a huge landslide on the Dobratsch, which dammed the Gail between Arnoldstein (above) and Villach. Some villages or hamlets were affected and partially destroyed by the reservoir that then formed or by the tidal wave. In the south of Carinthia and throughout Friuli, but also in Carniola, many castles collapsed. Information that 17 villages and nine parish churches, as mentioned in a document of the Patriarch John of Aquileia for the Arnoldstein monastery from November 19, 1391, or according to the King's Hall Chronicle from Bohemia, 18 or 23 villages and 34 castles were destroyed, are after current research status controversial, and probably either clearly too high or related to Carinthia and Friuli together.

Damage is documented above all in Friuli (Is up to approx. 10) and Carinthia (Is approx. 9), but extended to Osterberg in the east and Bolzano and Trento in the west. As far as can be proven, the northern border formed Waldenstein together with Ortenburg , but according to contemporary representations, it is unbelievable that Erfurt . Venice's southern border ; legendary Rome. According to credible accounts, the quake could be felt in the west as far as Milan , in the south as far as Bologna . Peuscheldorf , Ragogna and Sankt Daniel in the vicinity of the hearth and Weiden , Sacile , Aquileia and Venice in the wider area are considered particularly badly affected .

See also

literature

  • Christa Hammerl : The earthquake of January 25, 1348. Reconstruction of the natural event. (unedited phil. diss.) Vienna 1992, In: Neues aus Alt-Villach. Yearbook of the Museum of the City of Villach 31 , Villach 1994, pp. 55–94.
  • The earthquake of 1348 in Friuli and Carinthia. In: Christian Rohr : Extreme natural events in the Eastern Alps. Experience of nature in the late Middle Ages and at the beginning of the modern era. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-20042-8 , pp. 131–166.
  • Josef Schorn: The earthquakes of Tyrol and Vorarlberg , magazine of the Ferdinandeum, III. Episode 46, p. 116 ff. (Online)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rohr 2002, p. 134f. and Hammerl 1992, pp. 97-100
  2. ↑ Rohr 2007, p. 135
  3. ↑ Rohr 2007, p. 135
  4. ^ Georg Gangl: Macroseismic determination of the intensity of historical earthquakes - Intensity data point Villach 1348. In: 4th Symposium on the history of earth sciences in Austria. Reports of the Federal Geological Institute, Volume 64, Vienna / Klagenfurt 2003, pp. 32–36 ( PDF; 237 kB )
  5. ^ Rohr 2007, p. 131
  6. ↑ Matthäus Merian : Topographia Provinciarum Austriacarum. Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Mayn 1679, page 264. Digital full-text edition in Wikisource
  7. ↑ Christa Hammerl: The earthquake of January 25th, 1348: discussion of sources. In: Historical investigation of European earthquakes. Materials of the CEC project Review of Historical Seismicity in Europe. Milan 1993, pp. 225–240 ( online )