Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/270

Rh Atella, situated at the very outskirts of Vulture, almost at the limit of the volcanic formation, about six miles from Melfi, and a mile and a half south of Rionero, having declined in prosperity, as we have already stated, contained but 1,000 inhabitants. The earthquake was felt here with a force sufficient to destroy some buildings, and greatly injure others. The ceiling of the Church of St. Lucia fell in, and upon a wall which had been covered by a recent building, a fresco, the work of no common artist, was found: it probably belonged to the seventeenth century, although some attributed it to the fourteenth, and some to a still earlier date; but from the dress of the people represented, and the manifest allusion to a past calamity similar to the present disaster, we are inclined to think that it is a record of the earthquake of 1694, in which it appears Atella suffered greatly. In this picture, the Deity is represented as about to let loose the thunderbolts of his justice, on a people seeking refuge beneath the cloak of the Virgin, at whose intercession the thunders are restrained. It justly attracted the attention of our august sovereign, who visited this place to relieve the wants of its terrified population, and who not only commanded its safety until the repair of the church, but desired the renowned fresco-painter, Pompeiane Pasquale Abate, to proceed to Atella and make a correct copy.

The nuns of Atella were able to remain in their dwelling, although it was greatly injured, and were not compelled to emigrate like those of Melfi.

Proceeding from Rionero to Bariele, the east side of Vulture terminates in a ravine through which the small river Olivento flows. The Macigno formation reappears on the opposite bank, which rises with a considerable slope; here stand Ripacandida opposite Rionero, distant about a mile and a half in a direct line, and Ginestra opposite Bariele, at about the same distance. Both these towns suffered not only less than Bariele, which was destroyed, but much less than Rionero, and perhaps also than Atella. This is proved not only from the smaller number of dwellings which were injured, but from the less number of perceptible shocks on the 14th of August, and following night. In feet, the shock of the 14th instant, felt by all in Rionero, was but

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