Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/127



, a town founded in the early days of Greek settlement, and presenting still every indication of its remote origin, and of the successive races that it has owned for masters, was terribly handled by the earthquake of 1851 that destroyed Melfi, and its remaining crazy and ancient buildings have suffered considerably by the late one. On entering the town from the south, a large building on the west of the street, that looks like an old palazzo, three stories in height, shows some heavy fissures from top to bottom, open three inches at top. The wave-path seems to have been about S.W. to N.E. from these; and the slope of the fissures indicates a small emergence from the S.W., not more than 12° to 16°. The Palazzo Sarracino, and also a large nunnery, the two best-built and most modern buildings in the place, do not show a sign of injury; the cupola of the latter, is seen above the road in Photog. No. 318. The Chiesa Madre (Photog.No. 319, and Fig. 320,) a Lombard building of venerable antiquity, has its axial line 110° E. of north. It is severely fissured (new fractures) in the north side wall, in the arches of the chancel, both along the axial line and transversely,