2-979-734 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Late Explosion at Mayence - the Old Kastrick Street, 1857. 'This old town, the nearest fortress on the frontier towards France, and the strongest hold of the German Bund, suffered...a most grievous calamity...a tremendous explosion, with, a shock like an earthquake, made town, fortress, and surrounding country rock again. The powder- magazine in the south-west quarter, called the Kastrich of the town, near the Boniface battery, was in the air...The long street called the Old Kastrich was immediately a heap of limestone rubble, broken rafters, and shattered walls; a huge black smoking crater told where barracks, bastion, and hundreds of living men were five minutes before...the number of injured and wounded is fearful; the hospitals overflow with them...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.