Norwich bulletin., 1915-12-22
Stories of the War
Effects of Bombs On Venice.

An opportunity to see the deStruc- tive effect of the bomb raids on Ven ice was given to The Associated Press, when an inspection under official es- cort was made of the havoc and ruin in the famous old church of the Scalzi, one of the art monuments of the world now a wreck with it's roof blown of, it's massive walls tottering, and the fla nous ceiling fresco by Tiepolo, valued at million francs, lying in heaps of rubbish in the ruins of the building. There have been three bomb raids on Venice, but this was the worst, and the historic church bore the full brunt of it.
 Approaching the massive edifice one sees Q 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 a 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 rickety side walls still intact. WOrkmen can be seen high above be- ginning the work of salvage and re- pair, and heavy timbers are being laced across the gaping hole left by the bomb
 Entering the historic church a scene of havoc and ruin is presented-twist- ed beams and arches, panels and col
 umns of alabaster crushed into bits and lying around in heaps, the richly carved pulpit blown to pieces with only a faint outline of it's former wonders remaining, and above, the rof wide open to the sky, with the wonderful 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, l giving some idea of the beauties of the work torn away. Six enormous arch 1 es Spanned the edifice meeting in the
 middle. and giving an intervening 1 space for these frescos. Not a vestige l remains of the main subjects, the 1 visit of the Virgin to Loretto con | taining hundreds of biblical and ale | gorical figures, the ragged edges show | ing only cloud effects and the back l ground with a few figures. The high altar with spiral aiabaster columns and rich decorations, is not touched, | and another curious feature is that the | electric candles circling the church are | undisturbed, the electric bulbs shin ing as brightly as ever. But with these two exceptions-the high altar | far in the rear, and the circling can l dles-everything is a ruin, frescoed ceiling, inlaid marble sidewalks, sculp- | lures, confesSionals, memorial tablets, | baptistry, and marble mosaic pave
 ment-all lying about in fragments. 1 It was about eleven o'clock in the
 morning when the explosion occurred. | This was the busy hour, when the l gondolas were crowding the Grand l Canal, and the Venetians were shop ping and marketing. Suddenly a sin- 1 gle monoplane was seen in the north l ern sky, coming from the direction of l the Austrian frontier. It was flying
 very high-about 2,500 meters. Peo- pie at first did not recognize this speck | as an enemy bent on destruction. Soon 1 however, the steam syren at the Ar | senal gave a long wail-the signal of | warning-and the people scattered to | cellars and any available cover. The
 aeroplane was now in full view, head ing straight for the big railway sta- ton of Venice, the center of a net | work 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 fa1l-but instead of the station
 it struck square on top of the famous
 old church. It did not explode inn
 mediately as it struck the roof. In-
 stead 1t made a. clean hole through
 the roof ,and then, shooting down
 wards, exploded just above and in
 This internal explosion is what
 caused the terrible destruction, as be-
 sides the flying fragments of the bomb
 and its shrapnel contents, the sudden expansion of air in the confined inter-
 for of the church literally lifted the
 rooe from the supporting walls and
 blew 1t skyward One side of the roof to the left, beams and arches crash