New Britain herald., 1915-12-23
FAMOUS OLD CHURCH Il i|'| ]
 IN VENICE RUINED
Havoc Wrought in Italian Town
 By Recent Bomb Raid
Correspondence of the Associated Press)

l Correspondence of the Associated Press.> Venice, Italy, Dec. 1S.-An oppor- tunity to see the destructive effect of l the bomb raids on Venice was given an inspection under official escort was 1 made of the havoc and ruin in the l famous old church of the Scalzi, one l of the art monuments of the world, now a wreck with its roof blown off, its massive walls tottering, and the fG- 1 nous ceiling fresco by Tiepolo, valued at a million francs, lying in heaps of rubbish in the ruins of the building. There have been three bombs raids on Nenice but this was the worst, and the historic church bore the full brunt of it.
 Approaching tho massive edifico one sees gaping hole in the roof, extend- ing from front to rear The facade, fronting the Grand Canal is intact, and three sculptured figures standing along the cornice remain untouched. But back of the figures the roof sags away in 8 curved line downward and then up again to the rear wall, as though some giant hand had reached down and torn out the whole top of the church, leaving only the front and the ric1ety side walls still intact WorEsmen can be seen high above be- ginning the work of salvage and TO- pair, and heavy tinlbers are beiuS laced across the gaping hole left by the bomb.
 Havoc and Ruin.
 Entering the historic church a scene of havoc and ruin is presented twisted beams and arches, panels and columns of alabaster crushed into bits and, lying around in heaps, the richly carved pulpit blown to pieces with only Q faint outline of it's former won- ders remaining, and above, the roof wide open to the sky, with the won- derful frescos of Tiepolo dumped in huge masses of debris on the stone pavement. Faint edges of the grand old frescos still cling to the side walls giving some idea of the beauties of tho work torn away, Six enormous arches spanned the edifice meeting in the middle, and giving an intervening space for these frescos. Not ves- tige remains of the main subjects, the visit of the Virgin to Loretto, contain
 
 cal figures, the ragged edges showing only cloud effects and the background with few figures. The high altar, with spiral alabaster columns and | rich decorations, is not touched, and l another curious feature is that the | electric candles circling the church | are undisturbed, the electric blubs shining as brightly as ever. But with these two exceptions-the high altar l far in the rear and the circling cam is ruin, frescoed 1 ceiling, inlaid marble sidewalks, sculp- lures, confessionals, memorial tablets, baptistry, and marble mosaic pave ment-all lying about in fragments.
 It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when the explosion occurred. This was the busy hour, when the ! gondolas were crowding the Grand l Canal, and the Venetians were shop- | ping and marketing. Suddenly a single monoplane was seen in the northern sky, coming from the direc tion of the Austrian frontier. It was flying very high--about 2,500 meters People at first did not recognize this speck as an enemy bent on destruc- tion. Soon however, the steam syren at the arsenal gave a long wail-the signal or Wdrn1nS-anQ the peOplo scattered to cellars and any available cover. The aeroplane was now in full view, heading straight for the big rail- way station at Venice, the center of a network of railway connections. Just above the station the aeroplane began to circle round and round. Clearly it was going to bomb the station. But at 2,500 meters height the aim is not good and besides there was mist add ing to the difficulties of a sure shot. Down came the bomb-people could see it fail-but instead of the station it struck square on top of the famous old church. It did not explode imme- diately as it struck the roof. Instead, it made a clean hole through the roof and then, shooting downwards, ex- ploded just above and in front of the pulpit.
 Internal Explosion.
 This internal explosion is what caused the terrible destruction, as be- sides the flying fragments of the bomb and its shrapnel contents, theS sud- den expansion of air in the confined interior of the church literally lifted the roof from the supporting walls and blew it skyward. One side of the