Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/306

This page has been validated.
252
CHIESA D'INCORONATA.

Quite beneath Castelluccio, between the road and the torrent, that rushes to the Tanagro round its base, and some 100 feet below the road level, is a solitary church, La Chiesa d'Incoronata. It stands upon a low lying spur of deep diluvial clay and gravel, upon nearly the edge, that scarps sharply down, covered with natural oak and hazel, to the torrent of the Petrosa, and is greatly damaged; the whole of the east end having fallen out, carrying much of the roof with it. Upon descending below it, through the woods, I find that the deep diluvium above rests upon argillaceous beds, which are nearly vertical, and strike across the valley in a N. W. and S. E. direction, and so are almost parallel with the ridge of Sisignano and Lupino, already passed, and which appear to be wholly unconformable to the limestone breccia of Monte Carpineto; the subordinate mountain, to the continuation of the N. scarp of Monte Alburno, and which lies S. and S. E. of Castelluccio.

This church is a poor building, the walls about 15 feet high and 2 feet in thickness, of coarse limestone rubble, covered with a heavy tiled roof upon gross, ill-framed timber. The north wall had, in part, long leaned outwards (as I was informed by the priest), and a portion had fallen towards the north; but all the remainder of the east end had fallen outwards, or in a general direction of the line to (Fig. 131), and a much larger portion of the roof, as indicated by the irregular line , had come down and fallen within the walls. In both the north and south walls were some fissures , which, together with the general direction in which the mass of dislodged material had been thrown, indicated a wave-path of from 80° 30' W. of N. to nearly due W. and E. The mode in which the roof