2-979-735 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Late Explosion at Mayence - Site of the Powder Magazine, 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...Stones of several hundred weight were thrown to an immense distance, in many cases piercing the houses through roof to basement...horrible to relate, human bodies and fragments of them were hurled afar in the same way...The military loss was, of course, severe, as the accident, occurred during the removal of powder, and an exercising-ground was close by'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.