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Abstract

Volcanology as a science has made decisive steps forward since many different eruptions have occurred before our eyes and have been able to be documented with modern means of communication (photographs, films, satellite images, …). However, this process was already active in the past, even if it could only be based on written chronicles and graphic and pictorial representations. Some eruptions in particular have helped draw contemporary scientists' attention to volcanoes and their dynamics and danger. One of these is undoubtedly the eruption of Vesuvius in 1794, which took place at a critical moment for science, immediately after the French Revolution of 1789, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the middle of the reign of Ferdinand IV (1751 - 1825), King of Naples and III of Sicily from 1759 to 1815, who became King of the Two Sicilies with the name of Ferdinand I from 1816 to 1825. The lava flows emitted during 1794 destroyed 4/5 of the city of Torre del Greco (19,000 inhabitants at the time). The eruption showed a mixed effusive and explosive character and claimed at least 60 lives. The 1794 eruption is the best example we have of the occurrence of a flank eruption at Vesuvius. In this presentation, in addition to the phenomenology and the impact on the volcanology of the time, particular attention will be given to the civil modifications (urban planning, legislative changes, …) induced by this eruption in the circumvesuvian territory.