August 18, 1493 Earthquake: Dodecanese Islands, Greece

Reference #9116:

A destructive earthquake, preceded by foreshocks an hour before daybreak, occurred at about the time of sunset in the Dodecanese. The main shock occurred on 18 October 1493, on the day of St Luke the Evangelist (18 October), one hour before daybreak. The references in the literature to an earthquake on Cos on 5 August 1493 and probably 1491 (Funes 149?, v. 8; Coronelli 1693, 317), really refer to the single event of October 1493 (A. Luttrell, personal communication, 16 March 1980).

On the island of Cos most of the houses and fortifications are reported to have collapsed in the towns of Cos (Lango), Asfendiou (Narangia), Kefalos (Kefalou), Antimachia, Kokkino (Cognino), Enteomo(?) and Pylio, where many houses and part of the walls collapsed, killing a number of the gentry and other people, injuring many, though most probably not more than 5000 as some later writers maintain. Coastal buildings collapsed and fell into the sea. After the earthquake the survivors were left in such a panic that the Grand Master had to offer them privileges to induce them not to leave Cos. It is probable that damage extended to Bodrum on the mainland, where stones from remains of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus were not used in the reconstruction of the castle before about 1494 (A. Luttrell, personal communication, 16 March 1980; Gerkan 1935, 127). There was also damage on the neighbouring islet of Yiali (Scagki), which was usually uninhabited, and it is claimed that the earthquake broke away great rocks and formed an island ( sic .) near Nissiros (Nissari).

Thus Tarcagnota's brief account places the event at the end of October 1491 (Tarcagnota 1580, ii. 516), whereas Bosio says that the earthquake occurred on 18 October 1493 "one hour before sunset". He adds that as a result of the earthquakes there were "public processions throughout Rhodes supplicating God for the safety of the island" (Bosio 1597, xiv. 2). The earthquake in Cos, especially at Narangia, occurring "one hour before sunset" on 18 October, is also mentioned in a contemporary document (Anon. 1493(?), f. 110-115). Some of the seventeenth-century writers place the event in 1491, and put the loss of life at 500 (Lancellotti 1637, 50), whereas others date the earthquake to 18 (Girardi 1653 sub ann. ) or 20 October 1493 (Coronelli and Parisotti 1688, 312314) and give the exaggerated estimate of 5000 people killed on the island.