1916_Rimini_earthquakes

In 1916, two earthquakes of magnitude 5.82 Mw occurred near the border between the regions of Romagna and the Marche in the Kingdom of Italy: at 13:50 CEST on 17 May, and at 09:06 CEST on 16 August.While the earthquakes caused few fatalities, the 17 May earthquake damaged and the 16 August earthquake destroyed many buildings in the coastal settlements of Rimini, Riccione, and Pesaro, and their hinterlands. 615 buildings in Rimini were demolished after the earthquakes, while 80% of Riccione was razed. Among the lost historic buildings were Riccione's medieval Church of San Lorenzo in Strada and its first marine hospice. Some houses also collapsed in the Republic of San Marino. With the 16 August earthquake occurring at the height of the summer touristic season, the 1916 earthquakes considerably hurt the local coastal economies, already depressed by the First World War.The area around Rimini had suffered earthquakes in 1672, 1786, and 1875. Their frequency had mistakenly led people to expect strong earthquakes only once a century. The 1916 earthquakes are the most recent significant earthquakes to have struck Rimini and its environs. Antiseismic building regulations enforced in 1927 were suspended under Fascist Italy to encourage touristic development; they were reinstated in 1984, after much of the coastline had been developed.