Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/515

Rh The old church, however, gave better results. It was a building of great antiquity; the axial line was 55° W. of north, and, on entering the western door, I observed that two ancient and probably Roman altars, with nearly effaced inscriptions, had been built into the walls, and formed the pedestals for the stone jambs of the doorway. The building has wholly fallen in, and in great part the walls are down. The belfry tower stood at the north quoin (Photog. No. 248), a tower, of about 20 feet square, of which about 47 feet in height remain standing. The whole of the upper part has been thrown down, and the mass has fallen, partly within and partly without the church, and some on the highest remaining floor of the tower itself, all falling towards the S.E. There was a single bell in the tower, of about six cwt., which hung, as the "Parrochiano" (an aged priest, who politely came out in the rain to give me information, and whose name, I regret to find, I omitted to note) informed me, to a beam in the centre of the tower, and at

a height of 30 palmi above where I found it; namely, lying upon the top remaining floor, amidst rubbish and fallen