1667 Dubrovnik earthquake

1667 Dubrovnik earthquake
Local date	6 April 1667
Magnitude	6.4±0.3 Mw
Epicenter	42°36′N18°06′E / 42.60°N 18.10°E
Areas affected	Dubrovnik, Republic of Ragusa
Max. intensity	MMI IX (Violent)
Casualties	3,000–5,000 dead

Last updated January 29, 2025

The 1667 Dubrovnik earthquake was one of the three most devastating earthquakes to hit what is now modern Croatia in the last 2,400 years, since records began. The entire city was almost destroyed and around 3,000^[2] to 5,000 people were killed.^[3] The city's Rector Simone Ghetaldi was killed and over three quarters of all public buildings were destroyed. At the time, Dubrovnik was the capital of the Republic of Ragusa. The earthquake marked the beginning of the end of the Republic.^[4]

Tectonic setting

Dubrovnik's region is located in the eastern part of the Adriatic Sea and is a narrow strip of land, dotted by a series of bays, with the Dinaric Alps in the background, and hundreds of islands along the coast.^[5] The city of Dubrovnik was built in the most seismically active area in Croatia, which makes earthquakes the strongest in the whole country. It is the only Croatian town that is shown in red on the seismic map, which means that it is exposed to potential hazard of the strongest earthquakes, those of 10 degrees in the Mercalli scale.^[6]

Earthquake

The earthquake occurred at around 8 in the morning on April 6, 1667. Survivors of the event witnessed a rumbling sound followed by a tremendous kick that rocked the city.^[7] It occurred at about 8:45 in the morning, and lasted between 8 and 15 seconds.^[1] This event is thought to be the biggest one in the history of Dalmatia and practically defines seismic hazard in the coastal area of Croatia.^[5]

The effects of the earthquake were most keenly felt in the territory of the Republic of Ragusa, with a maximum intensity of 9 EMS98 being assigned to three settlements: Ragusa itself, Ombla and Gruž. Other parts of the Republic were most likely affected as well, although no written records were found by historians that related to them. The Venetian enclave of Cattaro experienced a maximum intensity of 8 EMS98, with an estimated 250-300 people dead in a town of ~1300 residents. In total, 37 settlements were affected, with the EMS98 spanning 6 to 9.^[1]

Damage

Many of the city buildings were reduced to rubble, with a majority of the ones that remained standing suffering significant damage.^[8] It is assumed that the large scale of destruction is due primarily to two factors: the previous earthquakes of 1520 and 1639, and the poor properties of the adhesives, prepared using brackish and sea water, used in the construction of the buildings.^[9] The Rector's Palace, the Major Council Hall and Sponza Palace all suffered severe damage. All the buildings lining the Stradun were destroyed, and passage through the street was blocked by rubble. Although the Franciscan Church and Monastery weren't destroyed by the earthquake, the subsequent fire destroyed much of the monastery, as well as its great library.^[10]

Citizens of the city witnessed huge stones rolling down the hill of Srđ destroying everything in their way. Large cracks appeared in the land, and the city's water sources dried up. The dust created by the destroyed buildings was thick enough to obscure the sky.^[7] Later, a powerful tsunami devastated the port, flooding everything near the shore. Strong winds fueled fires from homes and bakeries, and the resulting blaze would not be extinguished for almost 20 days.^[7]

Aftermath

The Sponza and the Rector's palace were the only buildings that survived the natural disaster. The city was reconstructed in the baroque style that has survived intact to this day. Despite the reconstruction, the decline of the Mediterranean as a hub for trade meant that Dubrovnik, like other Mediterranean ports, began a steady decline.^[11] According to the historian Robin Harris, the earthquake killed around 2,000 inhabitants of the city and up to 1,000 in the rest of the republic.^[2] Among the dead were the Rector and half of the members of the Great council. The effects of the earthquake also resulted in the loss of half of the nobility population.^[11]

Thievery

Alongside the fire, robbery had taken over the city as a result of the anarchy that followed, given that the earthquake killed the Rector and wiped out a great part of the government.^[5] The first claims filed before the Criminal Court concerned thefts of items and valuables from collapsed houses and rubble, with only a few cases of theft of construction material. By the beginning of 1668, the theft of construction material increased. It became the dominant form of thievery by the end of the year, and remained as such until 1674.^[12] In the period between June 21, 1667, and the December 31, 1676, ~70% of theft reports concerned material used in the city reconstruction, while 30% of the reports concerned theft of personal items and valuables.^[13]

Water shortages

The earthquake had done significant damage to various sources of fresh water, due to the damage done to the city's aqueduct. Furthermore, the wells around the city either dried up, or gave a yellowish, thick mass instead of water. Water had to be imported, gathered from the rainfall or drawn from the wells of the Gruž Dominican monastery, which were surprisingly undamaged. Consequently, significant funds had to be diverted into the reconstruction of the aqueduct.^[14]

Related Research Articles

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Pelješac is a peninsula in southern Dalmatia in Croatia. The peninsula is part of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and is the second largest peninsula in Croatia. From the isthmus that begins at Ston, to the top of Cape Lovišta, it is 65 km or 40 mi long.

Francesco Maria Appendini was an Italian Latin and Italian scholar who studied Slavic languages in the Republic of Ragusa. The French invasion prevented him from returning to Italy, and he adopted Republic of Ragusa as his own country. He took it upon himself to investigate its history and antiquities.

The Republic of Ragusa was an aristocratic maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in South Dalmatia that carried that name from 1358 until 1808. It reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, before being conquered by Napoleon's French Empire and formally annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1808. It had a population of about 30,000 people, of whom 5,000 lived within the city walls. Its motto was "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro", a Latin phrase which can be translated as "Liberty is not well sold for all the gold".

Baron Francesco Ghetaldi-Gondola or Frano Getaldić-Gundulić, was a Ragusan writer and politician, the first son of Sigismondo Ghetaldi-Gondola and Malvina Ursula de Bosdari. Francesco was a member of the Knights of St. John from 1889 until the death of the Mayor of Dubrovnik. He was decorated with the Cross of Devotion (S.M.O) on June 15, 1857. He fought in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). Francesco founded the Philatelic Society in Dubrovnik on December 4, 1890.

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The Croatian Dominican Province of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a province of the Dominican Order, established in 1962 with a merger of Dalmatian Province, consisting of convents along Dalmatian coast and islands, and Congregation of Dubrovnik and convents in Gruž, with a house established in Zagreb in 1927. Today province consist of 13 convents and houses located in Croatia ten convents and houses, Slovenia two houses, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina one house.

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The Rector's Palace is a palace in the city of Dubrovnik that used to serve as the seat of the Rector of the Republic of Ragusa between the 14th century and 1808. It was also the seat of the Minor Council and the state administration. Furthermore, it housed an armoury, the powder magazine, the watch house and a prison.

The siege of Ragusa or siege of Dubrovnik was fought between local Ragusan insurgents, as well as Austrian Croat troops and the British Royal Navy under Captain William Hoste against a French garrison under Joseph de Montrichard between 19 and 27 January 1814 during the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. The siege was fought on the coast of the Adriatic Sea for possession of the strategically important fortified town of Ragusa.

The Coat of arms of Dubrovnik was the heraldic symbol of the historical Republic of Ragusa. It is today used in a variant for the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia. Its basic appearance is based on the coat of arms of the Árpád dynasty.

Dubrovnik Archive or State Archive in Dubrovnik or Dubrovnik State Archive is the national archive in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Today archive is located in the Sponza palace, and holds materials created by the civil service in the Republic of Ragusa, i.e. notary and secretarial services from the 13th century, and after the fall of the Republic in 1808 documents created by the offices and institutions in the city of Dubrovnik during the French, Habsburg, Yugoslav and Croatian reign.

The Sponza Palace, also called Divona, is a 16th-century palace in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Its name is derived from the Latin word "spongia", the spot where rainwater was collected.

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The Festivity of Saint Blaise, the patron of Dubrovnik is a festivity organized on February 3 continuously since the year 972 AD in the City of Dubrovnik, Croatia on the occasion of the celebration of Saint Blaise's day. The festivity is based on the legend of the appearance of St. Blaise, who helped the people of Dubrovnik in defending their town against the Republic of Venice. It is attended by many people, including residents of the city, surrounding areas, other parts of Croatia, and neighboring countries, tourists, and representatives of state and local authorities of the Roman Catholic Church. It was recognized as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009. Festivity is also the Day of the City of Dubrovnik.

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References

1 2 3 Albini, Paola; Rovida, Andrea (9 November 2016). "From written records to seismic parameters: the case of the 6 April 1667 Dalmatia earthquake". Geoscience Letters. 3 (30). doi: 10.1186/s40562-016-0063-2 .
1 2 3 Harris 2006, p. 328.
1 2 Eystein S. Husebye (2008). Earthquake Monitoring and Seismic Hazard Mitigation in Balkan Countries. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-4020-6815-7.
↑ Zdenko Zlatar (1992). Between the Double Eagle and the Crescent: The Republic of Dubrovnik and the Origins of the Eastern Question. East European Monographs. ISBN 978-0-88033-245-3.
1 2 3 Albini, Paola (2015). "On the Eve of the Earthquake". The Great 1667 Dalmatia Earthquake. SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 1–30. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-16208-9_1. ISBN 978-3-319-16207-2. ISSN 2191-5369.
↑ Sović, Ivica; Ivančić, Ines; Markušić, Snježana (2017-08-30). "The 1667 Dubrovnik earthquake – some new insights". Studia geophysica et geodaetica (in Croatian). 61 (3): 587–600. Bibcode:2017StGG...61..587M. doi:10.1007/s11200-016-1065-4. S2CID 133587756.
1 2 3 Thomas, Mark. "On this day – the big earthquake of 1667 – The Dubrovnik Times". thedubrovniktimes.com. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
↑ Samadržić, Radovan (1983). Veliki vek Dubrovnika. Beograd: Prosveta. p. 223. ISBN 861716445X.
↑ Beritić, Lukša (1958). Urbanistički razvitak Dubrovnika. Zagreb: JAZU. p. 28.
↑ Mihajlović, Jelenko (1947). Seizmički karakter i trusne katastrofe našeg južnog primorja od Stona do Ulcinja. Beograd: SAN. pp. 22–23.
1 2 "Dubrovnik earthquake". Dubrovnik Digest. Archived from the original on 2016-09-09. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
↑ Balija, Petrica (2020). "Thefts Behind the Restoration of Dubrovnik After the Great Earthquake of 1667". Dubrovnik Annals. 24: 125–126. doi: 10.21857/9xn31conny . Retrieved 26 December 2020.
↑ Balija, Petrica (2018). "Doba obnove: krađe vezane uz poslijepotresnu obnovu Dubrovnika nakon Velike trešnje 1667". Anali Dubrovnik. 56 (1): 254. doi: 10.21857/y7v64t5n3y . Retrieved 26 December 2020.
↑ Seferović, Relja (2016). "Radovi na dubrovačkom vodovodu od velikog potresa 1667. godine do pada Dubrovačke Republike". Radovi Instituta Za Povijest Umjetnosti. 40: 141–142. Retrieved 26 December 2020.

Sources

Harris, Robin (2006). Dubrovnik, A History. Saqi Books. ISBN 0-86356-332-5.

External links

Potresi at duzs.hr
Potres u Dubrovniku 1667. godine Archived 2020-04-08 at the Wayback Machine (in Croatian)

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[Albini_i_Rovida-1] 1 2 3 Albini, Paola; Rovida, Andrea (9 November 2016). "From written records to seismic parameters: the case of the 6 April 1667 Dalmatia earthquake". Geoscience Letters. 3 (30). doi: 10.1186/s40562-016-0063-2 .

[FOOTNOTEHarris2006328-2] 1 2 3 Harris 2006, p. 328.

[cec-3] 1 2 Eystein S. Husebye (2008). Earthquake Monitoring and Seismic Hazard Mitigation in Balkan Countries. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-4020-6815-7.

[4] Zdenko Zlatar (1992). Between the Double Eagle and the Crescent: The Republic of Dubrovnik and the Origins of the Eastern Question. East European Monographs. ISBN 978-0-88033-245-3.

[:0-5] 1 2 3 Albini, Paola (2015). "On the Eve of the Earthquake". The Great 1667 Dalmatia Earthquake. SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 1–30. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-16208-9_1. ISBN 978-3-319-16207-2. ISSN 2191-5369.

[6] Sović, Ivica; Ivančić, Ines; Markušić, Snježana (2017-08-30). "The 1667 Dubrovnik earthquake – some new insights". Studia geophysica et geodaetica (in Croatian). 61 (3): 587–600. Bibcode:2017StGG...61..587M. doi:10.1007/s11200-016-1065-4. S2CID 133587756.

[:1-7] 1 2 3 Thomas, Mark. "On this day – the big earthquake of 1667 – The Dubrovnik Times". thedubrovniktimes.com. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

[8] Samadržić, Radovan (1983). Veliki vek Dubrovnika. Beograd: Prosveta. p. 223. ISBN 861716445X.

[9] Beritić, Lukša (1958). Urbanistički razvitak Dubrovnika. Zagreb: JAZU. p. 28.

[10] Mihajlović, Jelenko (1947). Seizmički karakter i trusne katastrofe našeg južnog primorja od Stona do Ulcinja. Beograd: SAN. pp. 22–23.

[:2-11] 1 2 "Dubrovnik earthquake". Dubrovnik Digest. Archived from the original on 2016-09-09. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

[12] Balija, Petrica (2020). "Thefts Behind the Restoration of Dubrovnik After the Great Earthquake of 1667". Dubrovnik Annals. 24: 125–126. doi: 10.21857/9xn31conny . Retrieved 26 December 2020.

[13] Balija, Petrica (2018). "Doba obnove: krađe vezane uz poslijepotresnu obnovu Dubrovnika nakon Velike trešnje 1667". Anali Dubrovnik. 56 (1): 254. doi: 10.21857/y7v64t5n3y . Retrieved 26 December 2020.

[14] Seferović, Relja (2016). "Radovi na dubrovačkom vodovodu od velikog potresa 1667. godine do pada Dubrovačke Republike". Radovi Instituta Za Povijest Umjetnosti. 40: 141–142. Retrieved 26 December 2020.

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