Manoppello and the mining disaster in Marcinelle (B)

5 days ago
4 min read

Manoppello is a charming village at the foot of Mount Majella, best known for Il Volto Santo, which attracts numerous pilgrims every year. In the post-war years, however – like so many villages and towns in southern Italy – the village was severely affected by high unemployment and widespread poverty, forcing many to emigrate in search of work and a better life. To Belgium, for example, to the mines in Marcinelle, a small town near Charleroi.

It was there that, in 1956, Belgium’s worst mining disaster – and one of the worst in European mining history – took place. On 8 August 1956, a fire broke out in the Le Bois du Cazier coal mine. This led to a disaster in which 262 people of twelve different nationalities lost their lives, including 136 Italians. Sixty of them were from Abruzzo, and of those, twenty-three were from Manoppello (PE).

"They’re all dead bodies"

In 1946, the Belgian government had signed an agreement with the Italian government in Rome: 50,000 Italian workers would come to work in the Belgian coal mines in exchange for the right of first refusal on 200 kilograms of coal per miner per day, a deal that Italy desperately needed for the recovery of its economy. Belgium needed the workers, as fewer and fewer Belgians were willing to go down the shafts. But the coal was essential for the recovery of its own economy. That is why they went across the Alps to recruit workers. Attracted by attractive wages, promises of a pension and paid holidays, some 303 convoys of Italians arrived in Belgium between 1946 and 1957, destined for the mines. More than 140,000 workers, over 17,000 women and nearly 29,000 children. The men were sent down into the mine shafts without any preparation.

On 8 August 1956, the Italian miner Antonio Ianetta placed a fully loaded coal wagon into the lift cage. Another small wagon was already inside, and it could not be removed. When the lift cage was suddenly raised, the wagons dislodged a beam, which in turn severed the telephone lines, two high-voltage cables and the oil and pressure pipes. The short circuit caused a fierce fire to break out almost instantly. The ventilation system allowed toxic gases to spread to other mine shafts. Ianetta and six others managed to reach the surface at 8.25 am. But then the lift cables snapped: the miners on the morning shift were trapped. Fifteen hours later, a further six survivors were found. The rescue operation continued until 23 August, until the last tunnel had been searched and the rescuers emerged with the message: “Tutti cadaveri” (“They are all corpses”). The last glimmer of hope for the women who had been waiting by the gate for weeks for a sign of life was thus swept away in two words.

It was not until 17 December 1956 that the last remains were recovered. The final toll was 262 dead from 12 nationalities, including 136 Italians. Twenty-three were from a single village in Abruzzo: Manopello, in the province of Pescara. A total of sixty of the dead were from Abruzzo, 22 from Apulia, 12 from the Marche, 7 from Molise and 4 from Calabria. There were 95 Belgians among the dead, of whom around thirty were Flemish.

The true cause of the disaster

Shortly after the disaster, Antonio Ianetta was immediately blamed. Fearing for his life, he was sent to Canada, where he died on 11 February 2012. The only person ultimately convicted was Adolphe Calicis, the mine’s ‘directeur des travaux’. In 1961, he received a six-month suspended sentence and a fine for maintaining a system in which signals could be misinterpreted.

In reality, the question of blame was more complex. The infrastructure of the mine in Marcinelle was outdated in every respect. The hydraulic system in Marcinelle still ran on oil, whilst many other mines had already switched to water. The mine shafts and connecting doors were made of wood and not (yet) of steel. Nevertheless, Marcinelle complied with the legal requirements of the time. It was only after the disaster that safety regulations were thoroughly revised.

After the disaster

The Italian government immediately terminated its immigration agreement with Belgium. The 136 Italian fatalities were 136 too many. Thus, the Marcinelle disaster brought an end to a long-standing wave of Italian immigration to Belgium. Meanwhile, work at the Marcinelle mine simply continued, albeit at a slower pace. No one wanted to work there any longer, but there were no jobs to be found elsewhere either. The mine was officially closed on 15 January 1961. However, during the closure and decommissioning, the miners stumbled upon a new, rich seam of coal and work resumed. In December 1967, the mine where the disaster occurred was closed for good. The mine now serves as a museum and memorial site.

Manoppello and Marcinelle

In Manoppello, the disaster is still commemorated every year. In August 2016, sixty years on, Princess Astrid of Belgium came to Manoppello to represent Belgium at the commemoration. In the centre of the village, on the remains of the cloister of a former monastery, lies a square named ‘Piazza Caduti di Marcinelle’ by the local council, where sculptures keep the memory of the disaster alive all year round.